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!o. 2. LovELL's Illustrated Series. 50 Cts. 



id at the New York Post Office at second-class rates. Issued Monthly, Annual Subscription, $5,00, Sept. 1 889. 



BY 



ALICE D. LePLONGEON, 




Ancient Shrine, Island Mugekj 



New York: John W. Lovell Company 

1 50 Worth Street, Cor. Mission Place. 



ERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN 



/ 










BAY OF DOLORES. 



Frontispiece. 



HERE AND THERE 



IN 



YUCATAN. 



MISCELLANIES 



ALICE B. Le PLONGEON, 

AUTHOR OF 

YUCATAN— ITS ANCIENT PALACES AND MODERN CITIES. 




NEW YORK : 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, 

150 WORTH ST., Cor. MISSION PLACE. 



Copyrighted by 

Alice D. Le Plonreon, 

1889, 




PREFACE. 



DURING a sojourn of several years in Yuca- 
tan, traveling here and there, stopping 
where we found interesting vestiges of the Mayas, 
the highly-civilized ancient inhabitants of that 
country, we had every opportunity of mingling 
with the natives. Thus we became acquainted with 
their mode of life, religion, sacred rites, superstitions, 
fables and traditions ; as well as learning something 
of their philosophy, and observing how communism 
is practiced among them. In a ranch called X-Uaiul, 
near the ruined city of Zay, the inhabitants still 
preserve the customs of their ancestors. Not only 
do they work their fields in common, and share 
equally the product of their labor, but even the 
food is cooked for all in one building, every family 
sending thither for its allowance, which is regulated 
according to the number of persons in each home. 
They even intermarry — no one dreaming of seeking 
a husband or a wife outside of their community. 



PREFACE. 

At different times I have published, in papers and 
magazines, various articles on these subjects, some 
being reproduced in English periodicals. It is in 
compliance with the request of friends that a few of 
those articles have been brought together in this 
little volume, which is now cast adrift to sink or 
swim, as its fate may be. 



CONTENTS. 



ALONG THE COAST, - - - _ i 



19 
23 



AMONG THE TURTLE CATCHERS, 
GEMS BURIED IN THE SAND, 

BEAUTIFUL COZUMEL, - - - 28 

THE EVIL EYE, - - - - "45 

PYGMIES, REAL AND FICTITIOUS, " " 53 

TRAVELING WITH TURTLES, - - - 62 

THE CARIBS, - - - - - 70 

REMARKABLE WELLS AND CAVERNS, - "76 

IDOLATRY IN YUCATAN, - - - S^ 

NEW year's day AMONG THE MAYAS, - -93 

BONDAGE IN COMMUNISM, - - - gS 

THE LOST LITERATURE OF THE MAYAS, - - 106 

FABLES TOLD BY THE MAYAS INDIANS, - 12 1 

MAYA ROMANCE, - - - - - 1 27 

PHILOSOPHY OF AN INDIAN SAGE, - - 131 

SUPERSTITION CONCERNING ECLIPSES, - - 137 

EVOCATION OF SPIRITS, - - - 140 



ALONG THE COAST. 

THE ViviwdiS a sloop of twenty tons burden, 
bound for Islands Mugeres and Cozumel, places 
we had long desired to visit ; we therefore decided to 
take this opportunity. The sloop was anchored be- 
fore Progreso (port of Yucatan), and would start 
that night. At dusk we descended the slippery 
steps of the wooden pier, and when a big wave 
brought the skiff near our feet, jumped into it and 
were rowed to the Vivi, that looked very diminutive 
rocking on the dark billows, for the sea was de- 
cidedly rough. The captain helped us to scramble 
on deck, and we set sail immediately. 

I have a dim recollection of taking possession of 
the cabin, which was about eight feet square, with 
a bench at the further end, and a berth on each side, 
and remember ardently wishing that all the globe 
was terra-firma, or that I had never been born, as 
well as indulging in a great many other unphilo- 
sophical thoughts that seasickness will induce, par- 
ticularly when cockroaches two inches long are 
wandering over the victim. That was June 20, and 



2 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

the following are the eloquent and remarkably in- 
teresting memoranda of the next four days: 

21. At dusk anchored a short distance from land at a place called 
Telchac. How stupid I was to come in this miserable boat ! 

22. Stopped at Sacrisan, and again at Hacun. Don't know why, 

23. Stopped at oilan. Wish the water would stop. Head wind. 
Heavy thunder storm. Very rough. Extra sick. Wish I was dead I 

24. Stopped at Holbox. Feel a little better. Ate a cracker. Fine 
weather. 

To those who have been seasick I need offer no 
apology for such a diary; they will fully understand 
that I am not responsible. 

Holbox is a picturesque Indian village whose in- 
habitants make a living by catching turtle to send to 
British Honduras, where the demand is constant. 
Near the shore there were turtles in pens. For a 
moment we feared that some of those creatures, 
weighing 500 pounds each, might be added to our 
freight ; and to see them on the deck, on their 
backs, their flaps sewn together, and gasping for 
breath, is enough — almost — to make one jump over- 
board. The huts of the fishermen are a long dis- 
tance from the shore, and the indolent natives pos- 
itively refused to bring water to the sloop, though 
we had stopped expressly for that, being much in 
need. 

Charming as the village looks at a distance, it has 



ALONG THE COAST. 3 

one great drawback, being infested with the terrible 
Uolpoch (the wickedly minded), a snake thus named 
by the Indians because without any provocation 
whatever it attacks, drawing itself up after the man- 
ner of a cheese-maggot, and darting at its victim a 
few feet distant. The venom of this viper causes 
the blood to ooze through every pore of the skin, 
and death always ensues in a very short time. No 
antidote for the poison is known, and the natives 
greatly dread this snake, because, owing to its color, 
it can easily be mistaken for a piece of dry wood 
when it lies straight on the ground. It is two feet 
long, about an inch and a half in diameter through- 
out its length, the tail terminating as if cut obliquely, 
and the mouth shaped like the beak of a quail. 

We next cast anchor at Island Contoy to avoid a 
long line of reefs that are difificult to see in the 
darkness of night. Island Contoy is four miles long, 
very picturesque, and totally uninhabited except by 
millions of sea birds. At dusk immense flocks came 
home and hovered over the Vivi^ as if to examine 
the great object that had approached their domains. 

After dark the island is a dreadful place in the 
estimation of the simple-minded folk who frequent 
those waters, because a great treasure said to be 
buried there is supposed to be guarded by a phan- 



A HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN. 

torn. One old man who pretended to know the 
whereabouts of the treasure is said to have been 
frightened from the place by the apparition of a 
gigantic negro, accompanied by a fierce hound. 
Three men once made a bet to pass the night on 
the island, and actually went there; but it is believed 
that they were pursued and terrified to death by 
the spectral keeper of the hidden gold, for daylight 
revealed one prostrate corpse on the beach, another 
in the water, and the third man was a raving maniac 
who never recovered reason. 

Several years ago it was generally thought that 
pirates had buried various treasures there, but in 
what particular places no one knew. At certain 
times of the year fishermen from the mainland went 
to the island to fish, building huts to serve them 
for the season. One day when a few of these men 
were on the beach, a large American vessel ap- 
peared on the horizon. In due time it cast anchor 
before Contoy. Several men landed, and producing 
papers and maps, said that they had come for cer- 
tain money buried there. 

Strange to say, their map led them to the very 
spot where the fishermen had built their hut: the 
thatched roof was right over the treasure ! The 
occupants were told that if they would dig they 







STREET IN ISLAND MUGEEES. 



Page 5. 



ALONG THE COAST. 5 

should be handsomely rewarded ; so they went to 
work and soon unearthed some large boxes filled 
ivith gold coin, which were promptly put on board. 
Then the ship sailed away with its precious freight, 
after the fishermen had been paid a hundred dollars 
each for their labor of an hour. This account was 
given us by one of those very fishermen, now quite 
aged. 

On the tenth day after leaving Progreso, about 
nine o'clock at night, we sailed into the beautiful 
Bay of Dolores, at Mugeres Island, or Women's 
Island, as the Spanish conquerors called it, because 
they found in the temples of the natives many 
images of women. The water of the bay was as un- 
ruffled and crystaline as a sheet of emerald ; and the 
village of Dolores made a charming picture, with its 
thatched cottages, boats hauled up on the white 
beach, and tall palms waving like feathered cano- 
pies above the dwellings; while the perfect stillness 
made usalmost imagine that we beheld an enchanted 
island awaiting the touch of a magic wand. That 
wand was the first golden sun-ray that shot from 
the east, calling every creature to life and action. 
Doors were thrown open; faint columns of smoke 
wreathed their way to the cloudless sky ; children 
ran to the beach to float their toy ships ; fishermen 



5 HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN. 

launched their boats ; women passed to and fro, and 
feathered songsters warbled their sweetest lay. No 
wonder that the last pirate chief, Captain Lafitte, 
made this island his headquarters. Some old people 
there well remember him as ''a nice gentleman who 
paid for everything he had from the fishermen along 
the coast, and never harmed any poor person." 

It was at the beginning of the present century 
that Lafitte became a terror to the ships that navi- 
gated the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, among 
the West India Islands down to the coast of Vene- 
zuela. In the beautiful harbor of Mugeres Island 
he found perfect shelter from the storms that at 
certain times of the year sweep with violence along 
those coasts; and on the top of some dunes south 
of what is now the village of Dolores he built small 
towers, whence he could keep an eye on the sur- 
rounding waters. The foundations of these towers 
yet remain in place, and *' every Christmas Eve the 
ghost of a sailor wanders about the hills." No one 
dares speak to him, believing that it would cause 
them to die within one year. 

When not on board, Lafitte's men lived in huts 
on the very spot where the village now is. Lafitte 
is described as having been very haughty with his 
men, punishing the least breach of discipline, and 



ALONG THE COAST, y 

never allowing them to approach him without first 
asking permission, although he was kind to the poor 
people on the coast. Once, when the Alcalde of a 
village refused to sell him meat for his men, he 
caused them to seize a bull and put it on his ship. 
On being told by the fishermen that that bull had 
been brought for their amusement in a festival, he 
had it at once restored to them, stating that he 
would be sorry to deprive them of the little pleasure 
they had in their life of toil and hardship. After 
the bull-fight, plenty of meat was sent to him as a 
present; then he insisted on paying for it, saying that 
he would take nothing from the poor. 

The tragic fate of this pirate king is told and re- 
told by those who recollect the event. Just at a 
time when some of Lafitte's ships were away from 
the place of rendezvous, a strong force was sent 
against him. He encountered it near Contoy and 
fought bravely, but his ship struck a rock and sunk. 
He took to the boats with eight or ten men, and 
succeeded in landing on a sandbank called Blanquilla, 
but was pursued and surrounded. One by one all 
his men fell ; still he refused to surrender, and was 
killed there, defending himself as long as there was 
breath in his body. 

The bay is generally animated, because many fish- 



8 HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN. 

ing smacks from Cuba frequent those waters, and 
the captains make the bay their headquarters, as the 
pirates did at the beginning of this century. These 
smacks are generally handsome schooners, of thirty 
to seventy tons burden, divided in three compart- 
ments. The central one forms a large tank whose 
sides are perforated with hundreds of holes, through 
which the sea water passes freely in and out. As 
soon as caught the fishes are bled by piercing them 
behind the right fin with a thin, hollow, cylindrical 
tube, then thrown in the tank, to be transferred to 
other large cages, also perforated, that are anchored 
near shore ; these are closed with a padlock. When 
enough fish are caught to almost fill the vessel's 
tank, they are taken to Havana to be kept in other 
tanks till required for the market. 

In case of stormy weather or laziness, the captains 
remain at Mugeres Island for days together, never 
in a hurry to leave ; for if in Spain they have one 
family, here also there are blue-eyed children to 
climb on their knees and call them '^ Papa." This 
state of affairs does not seem to be out of the way 
there ; it may be that few have preserved the right 
to point the finger at their neighbor. 

Besides the schooners from Havana, there are 
coasting sloops that carry on considerable contra- 




ALONG THE COAST. 



Pago 8. 



ALONG THE COAST. g 

band between British Honduras and Yucatan, stop- 
ping at the island for any cargo they can get. 

As for the islanders' boats, they constantly come 
and go ; some are exceedingly small. The fisher- 
men handle them most skillfully, one alone easily 
manages rudder and sail ; they frequently stand up- 
right in the smallest craft, apparently as much at 
ease as on land. To balance large boats they tie to 
the mast a rope with a long loop at the other end. 
In this a man sits as in a swing, his feet resting on 
the edge of the weather-side of the boat that is thus 
kept straight in a very strong wind, the man swing- 
ing himself backward over the water. 

The east side of the island presents a complete 
and beautiful contrast to the west. Rocks and crags 
run from one end to the other, the never-tiring 
waves ceaselessly dashing against them. What 
scope for the wildest fancy on this rocky shore! — 
with its millions of periwinkles and other shell fish. 
A lilliputian world — miniature caverns, shells of 
every shape and color, tiny tunnels, rivers and lakes, 
filled with sparkling bubbles of foam — and the sea 
eternally roaring. 

We found a strange character livmg on the island 
apart from every one except two men who serve 
him. With them he makes houses, stone walls, and 



lO HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

statues of himself. He calls himself Spanish Con- 
sul and fomentador, has large plantations of vege- 
tables, and plenty of cattle, yet will neither give 
nor sell anything to anybody, not even a little milk 
for any one who is sick. Vegetables and fruits ri- 
pen and rot, while his cattle roam everywhere and 
spoil all that other people plant. He works like a 
slave, and only allows himself one scanty meal a day. 
No one knows why he lives such an austere, isolated, 
selfish existence. It is understood that in his 
younger days he was engaged in the slave-trade on 
the African coast, and the people believe he must 
have committed some heinous crime that keeps him 
a prey to remorse, which he tries to stifle by doing 
penance. Some say he is haunted, and others that 
he is looking for the treasure, because he frequently 
changes his place of residence, building a new hut 
each time. He has plenty of gold ounces, yet sel- 
dom approaches the village. When he passes along 
the beach at twilight the friendly chat is suddenly 
hushed, and some one exclaims, in an awe-struck 
whisper: "There goes Mondaca!" 

After some delay we obtained a canoe to take us 
to the eastern coast of Yucatan, only six miles dis- 
tant. Our object was to examine some ancient 
structures at a place called Meco, where pilgrims 



ALONG THE COAST. II 

used to worship every year when on their way to 
Mugeres and Cozumel, whither they went as Ma- 
hometans journey to Mecca. 

After the bush was cut down we succeeded in 
measuring a temple: it was ten feet in height, built 
on the summit of an artificial mound forty feet high, 
with stone steps on the east side. In the base of the 
mound there were very small rooms, in which we 
were just able to stand upright. 

Surrounding the courtyard where the temple was 
there were other apartments of the same size, that 
may have served as lodgings for pilgrims; only 
people under three feet high could be comfortable 
in them. As we stooped to crawl in and out, we 
conjured up visions of diminutive individuals going 
back and forth, and up and down the almost per- 
pendicular stairs, in quaint and scanty attire, bear- 
ing offerings to propitiate the dear gods of the sea. 
All the other buildings at Meco were equally small; 
and the natives afiBrm, as a matter of course, that 
they were built and inhabited by dwarfs. 

There is another of these strange cities further 
down the coast, called Nizucte ; and though exposed 
to a visit from hostile Indians, we found there three 
men, one accompanied by his wife and a pretty 
daughter of eighteen summers. They were from 



12 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

the village of Dolores, and having put up a thatched 
roof intended to remain at Nizucte a few days, 
working hard at scraping a woolly substance from 
the trunk of a fan-palm called in Spanish gua?w. 
We asked how much they could earn at that work, 
and were informed that one aroba (twenty-five 
pounds) is worth $2.50; three people working 
together obtain that amount in two days. The stuff 
is used to make cushions and pillows, being as soft 
as feathers, but firmer. The leaf of the guano is 
baked underground, and made into very strong 
ropes that serve the fishermen in their boats ; the 
canoe we had engaged had no other rope in it. The 
fresh leaves make excellent fans, that retain a 
bright-green color for eight or ten days. They were 
put mto our hands to keep off mosquitos when we 
were invited to be seated on a log under the thatched 
roof. The pretty girl offered us cigarettes ; she was 
astonished when we declined. Not smoke ! It was 
such a consolation ! Would we not try just a very 
little one ? She seemed to regard me as an object of 
pity because I had never used tobacco, and my hus- 
band as a very peculiar being for having given up the 
use of the weed. 

These people informed us that the '' queer old 
houses " were close by. The largest building proved 



ALONG THE COAST. 1 3 

to be a diminutive temple, at the entrance of which 
were two enormous snake heads made of concrete ; 
they were embraced and encircled by gnarled roots 
that looked like dark-skinned serpents entwining the 
mineral representations of the same reptiles. Near 
by we found two large human legs, also concrete, 
and a square pedestal one foot high, on which was 
a symbol of the Phallic worship, two lobsters and a 
small turtle, all made of concrete. The doorway of 
the temple was three feet high and one and a half 
wide. The structure consisted of large, well-hewn 
stones, and the ceiling formed a triangular arch with 
capping stones, though outside the building was 
square. 

It did not take long to see all the ruins, but the 
owner of our canoe said he could not return to the 
village till next day, or perhaps the day following, 
as he desired to load his boat with lime and wood ; 
we had therefore to make the best of it. 

After dark we sat round an enormous camp fire, 
and knowing that it was not impossible for us to be 
disturbed by wild beasts or Indians, we vied with 
each other in telling blood-curdling stories to make 
the time pass pleasantly. Near the fire there were 
two trees of poison-oak at a convenient distance 
from each other to hang a hammock from them, so 



I A HERE AND THERE IN VUCA TAN. 

there we decided to sleep, but the mosquitoes were 
determined that we should not ; there were mil- 
lions of these fiendish insects, and no amount of 
smoke seemed to annoy them. A refreshing shower 
sprinkled us now and again, which relieved us from 
our tormentors for a few minutes. 

On our way back to Island Mugeres we passed 
through immense schools of sardines, and that 
evening enjoyed some of them for dinner. They 
were very large and of a remarkably fine flavor, but 
the people in those parts only catch a few now and 
then to serve as bait for bigger fish. 

Our next expedition was to the salt pits in the 
middle of the island. By an underground passage 
these large pools communicate with the sea on 
the east side. At the beginning of the fishing 
season, men and women go to collect the salt 
that is deposited by evaporation on the shore of 
the pools. They seem to regard it as a kind of 
picnic, though the work is laborious, especially for 
the women, who stand up to their waists in muddy 
water all day long, putting the salt into large turtle 
shells that serve instead of vats. It would be 
almost impossible to transport the salt by land to 
village Dolores ; the only roads are narrow pathways 
through the thicket, and the soil is so rocky and 



ALONG THE COAST. I 5 

uneven that it is tiresome to walk, much more so to 
carry a load. A great extent of the interior of 
the island is taken up by a most picturesque lake 
that opens on the south side of the bay by a narrow 
channel through which the water of the ocean 
enters. The lake is consequently subject to tides, 
and it is navigable for the majority of the canoes 
used by the fishermen. 

The channel is crooked and scarcely more than 
nine feet wide, having dense thickets of mangroves 
on each side. It takes about half an hour to go 
through it, then the lake suddenly opens to our 
view, truly a charming scene ! It is surrounded by 
banks twenty feet high, covered with verdure ; sea- 
gulls soar overhead, filling the air with discordant 
screams, while pelicans, herons and storks, are 
perched here and there, half hidden among the foli- 
age, motionless, wistfully watching the water, to 
catch the unsuspicious fish that venture within 
their reach. 

The lake is nearly three miles long; its southern 
end reaches to within a hundred yards of the salt 
pit ; thus the labor of transporting the salt is made 
comparatively easy. 

During our stay at the village Dolores, we ex- 
amined a curious old manuscript, written in very 



1 6 HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN 

quaint Spanish, that is called the '■' Book of the Jew T 
It is held in great esteem by the people there as 
well as by many of the inhabitants on the mainland, 
and so highly appreciated that those who possess 
copies, either in print or manuscript, can hardly be 
induced to let them go out of their hands. Foi* the 
benefit of the reader we give a few extracts from 
the volume: 

"For the bite of vipers take two inches from the 
middle of the snake's body, burn it ; then put the 
ashes on the wound. It will be cured." 

Heart disease and epilepsy are trifling matters for 
the " Jew ;" his unfailing remedy is — ^' Three swal- 
lows* hearts tied to the patient's left arm." 

Here is advice " for the faint-hearted." '' Wear a 
small bag, containing Artemesia, over the heart ; it 
will give thee vigor and daring." " A spider rolled 
in its web and worn around the neck will cure ague 
and fever." 

'' To prevent hydrophobia let a woman swallow the 
tongue of a male iguano, and a man that of a female 
iguano." 

For some diseases the patient is advised to cook 
a turkey buzzard, feathers and all, and drink the 
broth. Ground bones of the skunk are likewise 
much recommended. 




ANCIENT SHEINE, ISLAND MUGEKES. 



Page 17. 



ALONG THE COAST. 1 7 

** Cook the head of a rattlesnake in a new vessel 
containing a pint of vinegar, then take from the 
head the little thorn-like fangs. One of these ap- 
plied to an aching tooth, will make it fall out with- 
out any pain ; but take care not to touch any other 
tooth, for as many as you touch will fall out." 

Those who have a poor memory are advised to 
use mustard as snuff: "a very little of it and you 
will understand more in one hour than those who do 
not know the secret will in a day." 

''Every human body consists of four humors: 
phlegm, blood, anger, and melancholy, to which 
correspond four elements: heat, cold, moisture, and 
dryness." 

- And this book was published several years ago 
as a learned work on medicine ! 

At the south end of the island, on a narrow prom- 
ontory, there is an ancient shrine, built of well-hewn 
stone, abandoned since the time of the conquest. 
To it, in ages gone by, pilgrims repaired from 
fai and near to deposit offerings on the altar. 
These chiefly consisted of clay figures represent- 
ing the human body or parts of it ; fragments of 
them are found in the sand all around. We were 
fortunate enough to unearth a very perfect face, 
that of a woman, and a pair of feet with sandals. 



1 8 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

The shrine stands on a platform 2 metres high, 
and is itself 3 metres in height (9 feet, 9 inches) 
with a frontage of 6 metres. The doorway faces 
south, and the walls are nearly three feet thick. 
The interior was divided in two rooms, the altar 
being in the smallest. 

The lintels of the doorways are sapote wood. 
On them various names have been carved at differ- 
ent times. Among others we saw that of Mr. 
Goodall, with the date 1841. This gentleman is now 
President of the American Bank Note Company in 
New York City. 

In the floor of the largest room there was a big 
hole that was made by some one searching for a 
certain treasure. The rocky elevation upon which 
the shrine stands is a wild and romantic spot, its 
base surrounded by crags against which the roaring 
billows constantly dash their white foam. On each 
side the rocks are yielding to the unceasing action 
of the waves ; already part of the platform, and the 
east wall of the shrine, has been carried down into 
the sea. Atom by atom, the entire structure will 
thus disappear in the course of time. 



AMONG THE TURTLE CATCHERS. 

THE air was exquisitely soft and balmy, the 
moon so brilliant that every fleeting cloud 
was reflected in the clear water of Dolores Bay, 
while the white sand of the shore glittered under 
our feet as we sauntered along enjoying the beauty 
of the scene. In this peaceful bay, six miles 
from the eastern coast of Yucatan, the Spanish 
ships anchored nearly four hundred years ago. 
The principal industry of the villagers is fishing, 
and from the month of April to August, all their 
attention is given to turtle-catching. So, on that- 
moon-lit night, as we strolled along the beach, men, 
women, and children also wended their way to the 
north end of the island, where all was silent as the 
white tombstones in the village grave-yard by which 
we passed. A few hastened their steps as if they 
feared a departed friend might stalk forth in wind- 
ing-sheet. 

Reaching a place where thick shrubs grew, not 
far from the water's edge, all concealed themselves 



20 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

behind the bushes or in the shadow cast by them, 
and from their hiding-place watched silently for the 
turtles. These prolific creatures come to lay their 
eggs in the sand, never failing to select a spot above 
high-water mark ; consequently at low tide they have 
to go a good way up on the beach. 

Having chosen a place, they quickly make a hole, 
and deposit therein about one hundred eggs, over 
which they again put the sand, leaving the spot in 
appearance as they found it ; so that no one would 
discover the nest but for their tracks. The turtle im- 
mediately returns to the water, leaving the eggs to 
be hatched by the heat of the sun ; in due time the 
little ones make their way out and go straight to 
the sea. 

When the turtle begins to cover the eggs the 
people creep from their hiding-place and cut off her 
way to the water; then, when she starts toward 
them, they capture her and turn her over, not with- 
out trouble, for some weigh as much as five hundred 
pounds. The flaps are tied, and a mark set on 
the shell, so that when morning comes each party 
may know which they have captured. The family 
that catches two or three in a night is well satisfied. 

The turtles have formidable jaws, and it is neces- 
sary to keep one's hands well out of their reach, for 



AMONG THE TURTLE CATCHERS. 2 1 

they can break a man's limb as we can a match. 
As for conchs — most abundant in those waters — 
though the shell is hard to break with a hammer, 
the cahuamo easily cracks it, to eat the delicious 
contents. 

The cahuamo, or hawk-bill, is the largest kind of 
turtle, weighing from 200 to 500 pounds. Its flesh 
tastes like good beef, but is generally left on the 
beach to rot and be consumed by buzzards, the 
people not being numerous enough to eat it all, 
though large quantities are dried and salted to be 
sold as jerked beef. Speculators once went to 
considerable expense to try and preserve this meat, 
but we are told it turned bad in the cans. 

The catchers gather the eggs, the fat, and shell, 
though the last is worth so little that they do not 
always take the trouble to lift it from the beach ; 
many are scattered over the sand. The eggs are 
considered a great delicacy, and taste very rich, but 
have a strange sandiness that is unpleasant to the 
palate. 

The carey {CJielonia iinbricatd) is smaller and of 
more value. The least the islanders will take for 
the shell is two and a half to three dollars a pound ; 
rather than accept less they will keep it in their 
house from one year to another. The carey, as well 



22 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

as the green turtle, is caught with harpoons and 
nets. The green turtle is carried to British Hondu- 
ras, where they are worth from one and a half to 
three dollars each, the shell not being used. The 
poor creatures are transported in small sailing ves- 
sels, where they lie on their backs on deck exposed 
to the scorching sun, and once a day have buckets 
of water dashed over them to keep them alive. 

Large pens are built at the water's edge to keep 
the turtles in until shipped for the market. When 
they become lean, from being kept thus too long, in 
order that they may fatten again, they are set free 
in the lake that is in the interior of the island — after 
being branded with the mark of the owner. They 
never multiply there, nor make their way through 
the channel out to the ocean, but owing to the good 
aliment that they find, are soon again in fine con- 
dition for the market. 



GEMS BURIED IN THE SAND. 

CONNECTED with almost all the small islands 
in the neighborhood of the Mexican Gulf and 
the Caribbean Sea there is some " treasure story," 
but perhaps none so well authenticated as that of 
Mugeres Island. This lovely little isle is in latitude 
north 21° 1 8', and longitude west 86° 42', Greenwich 
meridian, and about a hundred and twenty miles 
from British Honduras. 

Pirates' exploits and their buried piles of gold 
and gems are the inexhaustible source of all the 
romantic stories that the fishermen love to tell on 
moonlight nights, seated on the bottom of some 
boat turned up on the beach. They suspect that 
others dream of treasures as much as they do, 
for strangers are closely watched. Whichever way 
we strolled, some one kept us in view. When we 
mentioned this to Don Pedro Pobedano, one of the 
oldest inhabitants, he said, " They think you have 
come for the treasure, which they would never allow 
to be taken by a stranger." So we invited Don 



24 



HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN, 



Pedro to tell us about it, and he gave us the story 
as follows : 

" Nearly all of us are from Yalahau, on the oppo- 
site coast (Yucatan), but we always came here to 
fish. I was a little shaver when my uncle first 
brought me, yet I remember everything. One 
morning a schooner hove in sight; it soon cast 
anchor in this bay. There were armed men on 
board. They came ashore, but seemed not to 
notice us ; we watched and saw them look all 
around. One evening when we returned to our camp 
we missed some /^r^"///^^' (Mexican bread), and could 
not find out who had taken them. Next day the 
same thing happened, and so the next ; then a boy 
was set to watch. He hid himself, saw an old 
man steal from the bush, snatch some bread, and 
quickly retreat. 

'^ My uncle resolved to capture the thief. Next 
day we started in our boats, as usual, but soon 
anchored in a small cove near by, and walked to the 
camp, where we hid ourselves. We let the old man 
enter the hut; then we surrounded him, and learned 
that he had come on board the schooner to show 
the others where a treasure was, he having seen it 
buried. Overhearing a conversation in which it 
was agreed to kill him when the treasure was un- 



GEMS BURIED IN THE SAND. 25 

earthed, so that he might not demand his share, 
he • ran away and hid in the woods, watching 
for our absence, to procure food. He seemed 
greatly afraid of the companions he had left; so my 
uncle told him he was welcome to share with us, 
but had better keep out of sight till the schooner was 
gone. Very soon the treasure-seekers went ofT in 
their ship, no richer than they came, probably believ- 
ing the old man dead; but he was hale and hearty, 
with all his wits about him, though seventy years 
of age. Concerning himself, he said: * When quite 
young I was kidnapped and taken on board a pirate 
ship, where I was made cabin-boy. One day the 
crew entered a city on the coast and sacked it, tak- 
ing lots of gold coin, precious things from the 
churches, and the bishop's jewels. What a glit- 
tering pile it was ! They put it all in boxes cov- 
ered with lead, and brought them here, landing 
them on the north end of this island, where they 
dug a trench in the sand sixty steps from the water's 
edge. In the trench they laid the treasure, and 
covered it with a piece of tarpaulin and a light 
coating of sand. Then the captain asked for volun- 
teers to guard it. 

" 'Two negroes stepped forward, and were instantly 
shot by the captain, who ordered their bodies to be 



26 HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN, 

thrown on the boxes, saying that they would take 
better care of them dead than alive, because any one 
finding bones would look no further. The trench 
was then refilled, and on it three stones were placed 
to form a triangle, a crowbar being buried ten steps 
from them. Our ship was soon afterwards captured, 
and every one on board put to death except me, be- 
cause I was young and had been kidnapped.' 

"After much persuasion," continued Don Pedro, 
" he pretended to look for the treasure, but I think 
he feared to indicate the spot lest we should kill 
him, as the others had proposed to do, though 
we would not have hurt the old man. We took 
him to our village, and he went to Campeche, where 
he died. Nothing was heard about the treasure 
for several years, during which time we formed this 
village, when one day men arrived from Cam- 
peche, bringing a government permit to dig for it. 
All the trenches back of the old church were 
made by their order. They did not look at the 
north point of the island, but they were so sure of 
finding the money that they paid the people here 
who worked for them double their usual wages, and 
spent many dollars, going away so much poorer, for 
they found nothing. They had lost a map, they 
said, that indicated the existence of a high stone 



GEMS BURIED IN THE SAND. 27 

having the form of a cachucha, and the boxes were 
buried in front of that. {CacJiucJia is a flat cap, also 
a small boat.) Another party came to search on the 
south side of the village, with no better success, and 
the last comers looked in vain at the north point. 
In 1 847, when the first settlers came, a youth, looking 
for fire-wood, let fall his machete (long knife), and it 
struck something sounding like metal, which proved 
to be a crowbar. The youth took it away without 
marking the spot, for he had heard nothing about 
the treasure ; and yet he was within ten steps of it. 
It can only be found by the one it is intended for. 
Once I thought I had it. Digging to make the 
foundation of a house, we came upon human bones; 
then I had an immense trench opened, but found 
nothing more." 

We thanked Don Pedro for the story, and de- 
cided not to look for the bishop's jewels, though 
we had no difficulty in finding the stone like a 
cachucha at the north point of the island, and, sixty 
steps from it, the three stones forming a triangle- 
In fact an old negro in the city of Tizimin had given 
us the proper directions, but we never had a chance 
to dig; there were too many eyes watching us, and 
it might have cost us our life. 



BEAUTIFUL COZUMEL* 

TEN miles from the eastern coast of Yucatan 
lies the Island of Cozumel, one of Nature's 
favored spots, where there is perpetual spring, and 
to live in the open air is a delight. We wanted a 
house, nevertheless, and were by no means charmed 
when informed that it would be very difficult to 
find a lodging. 

The centre of the village of St. Miguel is an im- 
mense grass-grown square, bounded on the west by 
the sea, on the east by a thatched church, and on 
north and south by thatched dwellings. The rest 
of the village is scattered along the beach and a 
little way back, not far, for there are only five hun- 
dred inhabitants. 

Having no tent to pitch, we emphatically in- 
sisted on a house, and were at last allowed to 
take possession of a one-room residence at the 
southeast corner of the square. It was gloomy, 
damp, dirty ; the floor thickly strewn with dry 
cocoa-nuts. It had two doors but no window. In 

* Published in " New York Tribune."" 




FISHEKMAN^S HUT, ISLAND MUGEKES. 



Page 28. 



BEAUTIFUL COZUMEL. 2Q 

one corner there was a pile of cocoanuts, to which 
we immediately began adding others. We were 
throwing one after another as fast as possible when 
the old priest of the village introduced himself and 
said he was glad to find out what the noise was, as 
he had feared it might be an earthquake coming on; 
though they had ne\'cr had one in Cozumel. Father 
Rejon was in shirt sleeves, for, said he, " I cannot 
afford to wear a coat every day." 'He invited us 
to go and play cards with him in the evening ; and 
also gave us the welcome intelligence that our house 
was haunted. 

We were still throwing the nuts when an Indian 
girl came running across the square to invite us to 
dine with her mistress. We therefore locked our 
doors and went to the house of Dona Concha. In 
her sitting-room we found Captain Low — in whose 
schooner Aryetis we had arrived — and several un- 
fortunate hens tied in pairs by the feet, struggling 
on the floor. The poultry of Cozumel are of superior 
size and quality, and when taken to Key West 
always fetch a good price. Captain Low wanted 
five dozen that had to be collected from all over 
the village. He paid 36 cents for each, though 
for the same birds the villagers only charged each 
other 25 cents. The captain also wanted a load 



30 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN, 

of fruit; but that he could not have, because Dona 
Concha said only a week or two before a tornado 
had swept over the island uprooting every fruit 
tree. 

These periodical tornadoes are the only drawback 
to life in Cozumel. Perhaps that is one of the rea- 
sons why it is almost uninhabited. Nevertheless 
when the Spanish Conquerors arrived there, more 
than 350 years ago, the population numbered 100,- 
000, besides 50,000 pilgrims who yearly visited the 
shrines. The island was then called Cuzamil, which 
means in Maya language '"'■ the swallows.'* 

The soil is strewn with vestiges of ancient dwell- 
ings that are concealed beneath forests rich with 
valuable timber. Among the trees are the ebony, 
brazil-wood, cedar, sapote, ramon, rosewood, and the 
zac-ha-na (house of white water) under whose roots 
there is always a spring of pure, clear water. The 
thickets are alive with pheasants, quails, pigeons 
and other game. With a little care every kind of 
tropical fruit, of very fine quality, grows abundantly; 
vanilla is found wild: plenty of copal can be gath- 
ered from the trees, as well as honey and wax, the 
product of harmless wild bees. 

Only labor is needed to turn all this to wealth. 
7 he natives have quite as much work as they care to 



BEAUTIFUL COZUMEL, 3 1 

do, being contented to live from hand to mouth. 
We found a few Americans from New Orleans 
and Key West living there. They said that they 
could make plenty of money if they had good 
laborers. 

Tobacco grown in Cozumel is quite equal to the 
weed produced in Cuba, and many cigars sold as 
" Havanas " are from Cozumel, whence they are 
sent boxed ready for the market. The principal 
planter there, Mr. J. Anduze, took us through 
his plantation, fifteen miles from St. Miguel, and 
gave us a little useful information. When the plant 
is two feet high, the top is broken off to prevent 
further growth, that the whole strength and vir- 
tue may be taken up by the leaves already formed; 
only a few plants are left to run to seed. The 
same soil does not serve for tobacco more than one 
year, but during that time three crops can be raised. 
Such leaves as turn yellow before the weed is ready 
to pluck must be cut off; they are used in second- 
rate cigars. The ground must be kept perfectly 
free of all other weeds. When ripe the plant is 
hung up for eight or ten days, within doors, to dry 
thoroughly. Each leaf is then separately moistened 
in a decoction of tobacco and strung on a fine wire. 
The wires are stretched in lines, one above another, 



32 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

in a building kept for the purpose. The operation 
of drying and moistening is repeated four or five 
times, after which the leaves are tied up in bundles, 
put in hogsheads, and covered over to ''sweat." 
It is upon this *' sweating " operation that the flavor 
and odor of the cigar depend. The principal occu- 
pation of the islanders is tobacco growing and cigar 
making. 

Near the plantation there were some curious little 
buildings that had once served as temples to a very 
diminutive race of people, whose existence is 
proved by Avhole cities of similarly small houses on 
the east coast of Yucatan. We examined the edi- 
fices, but the owner of the plantation said that there 
were some much more interesting at a place called 
Buena Vista. We decided to go, though the Indian 
selected as a guide said the road was bad. We 
started with him and his four small hunting dogs, 
and soon acknowledged that the road might be 
better. The fact is there was no road, nothing but 
a footpath through the dense forest, so obliter- 
ated in places, owing to the tornado, that even our 
guide paused from time to time to consider whether 
he was keeping in the track. We were walking on 
coral rocks over which there was a perfect net-work 
of small roots, just like ropes, spreading in every 



BEAUTIFUL COZUMEL. 33 

direction, the interstices being of a most convenient 
size to catch heel or toe. From time to time the 
dogs made off in quest of fancied prey ; then losing 
their way, set up a dismal howling for their master 
to guide them back with his voice. These dogs, 
though small, fearlessly chase the boar and hold it 
at bay till the hunter comes to kill it, which is 
generally done with a wooden spear. 

When we had walked about five miles, and were 
as tired as if we had been tramping for twenty-four 
hours on a good road, we asked our guide, who had 
not once opened his lips, except to whistle to his 
dogs, if we were near Buena Vista. ^' Not half way," 
was the crushing reply. We dared not rest for more 
than a few minutes, as the forest was cool and 
damp, and we w^ere profusely perspiring from con- 
tinual efforts to keep from stumbling. Another 
mile — the rocky hills getting steeper and steeper. 
Then we observed that our boots were falling to 
pieces! The Indian seemed to chuckle inwardly at 
our misery when he informed us that there was no 
place to rest at Buena Vista, much less any cobbler 
to mend our boots. It was evident that, even if we 
came in sight of the old houses — not worth looking- 
at, in the opinion of our guide — this would be a 
bootless journey anyhow. Our feet were already 



34 HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN. 

blistered ; so we turned homeward, vowing that the 
next time an Indian said a road was bad we would 
be content to take his word for it. 

We arrived at the plantation limping as though 
we had been on a nine days' tramp, and before 
we could reach shelter a shower of rain drenched 
us to the skin. The consequence was a burning 
fever all night, our torture being increased by hun- 
dreds of tiny wood-ticks that had worked their way 
under our skin. To complete our chagrin, we were 
assured, by one who had been there, that at Buena 
Vista there was a building ornamented with hiero- 
glyphics sculptured in stone : we did not decide to 
try it again. 

Our journey back to the village was a delightful 
contrast to the attempted trip to Buena Vista. We 
went, on horseback, along the shore, through groves 
of palm-trees, passing now and then by plantations 
where luxuriant sugar-cane and many other products 
showed the wonderful fertility of the soil, and how 
at the time when this ancient Mecca was frequented 
by thousands of devout pilgrims, it could, being 
thoroughly tilled, easily yield abundant nourishment 
for all. 

We then made up a boat party with' some of our 
countrymen who were trying to form a colony there. 



BEAUTIFUL COZUMEL. 35 

The boat belonged to them ; it was not more than 
fifteen feet long, but big enough to accommodate 
five people. After an hour's sail along the coast 
we stopped to see the place where the American 
colony was to be. It was a lovely spot. The first 
house was being built. The owner complained bit- 
terly that the native workmen did as little as pos- 
sible, and charged twice as much as they usually 
received from their own people. 

Further down the coast we stopped at a planta- 
tion belonging to Senor Angulo. We had an op- 
portunity to see immense fields of garlic, ginger, 
sweet potatoes, and sago : from this last article 
excellent starch is made. These productions are 
exported principally to British Honduras, Island 
Mugeres, and Cuba; a little to the mainland, par- 
ticularly to Campeche: boats coming from the 
islands seldom touch at Progreso. 

Near Mr. Angulo's habitation we saw a cave only 
three feet high, within which there is a square room 
built of comparatively large stones, and having ves- 
tiges of colored designs on the outside. In this 
cave we found the frontal bone of a skull. Judging 
by its size, one would take it to be that of a child six 
years old, but its extreme thickness and the condition 
of the sutures, show that it was that of an adult. 



36 HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN, 

Leaving the plantation we continued our way 
along the coast, seeking an entrance to a certain 
lake. Night overtook us before we found it ; we 
therefore hauled our boat up on the beach, and 
sought shelter in a fisherman's deserted hut. 

Next morning, after two hours' sailing, we found 
the channel by which we were to reach the lake. 
The boat had to be borne across the beach that 
there forms a sandbar, over which flows only a 
few inches of water, to the mouth of the creek. 
This was about five yards wide, and closed over- 
head by mangroves. The water proved to be 
only five feet deep, and with a swift current, as it 
was low tide, coming from the lake. We struggled 
forward for about an hour, cutting away the low 
boughs : as in that time we had only advanced a 
little more than half a mile, the idea of penetrating 
to the lake was abandoned. We therefore backed 
out of the channel and continued along the coast 
till we came to a place where the water was crystal- 
line and shallow. A number of large conchs lay on 
the sandy bottom; we secured some and went ashore 
to breakfast. 

The conch-shell is exceedingly hard, but large 
turtles, that abound in these waters, break them be- 
tween their jaws without apparent effort. We 



BEAUTIFUL COZUMEL. 3^ 

roasted some conchs, but found they were much 
nicer uncooked, though they had to be softened 
by hammering them with a stone. 

We sailed all day, and toward evening saw in the 
distance some huts that we decided should be our 
hotel that night. We were lured on by what ap- 
peared to be a massive and extensive wall; only 
after landing we discovered that what looked like 
a magnificent fortification was in fact millions of 
shells, principally conchs, that formed a high per- 
pendicular bank. There was also a smaller shelf 
composed of thousands of tons of dry sponge and 
seaweed that might be utilized for commercial 
purposes. Near by, on the top of a rock, was a 
small shrine and a stone snake-head. Afterward 
we found others of the same kind at intervals alone 
the coast. They were altars, to which at the time 
of the conquest — according to the historians — fish- 
ermen went to make offerings and burn copal to 
their divinities of the sea. 

Heavy clouds warned us to hasten to our boat, 
and sail back to the huts. We found them in good 
condition, and some dry wood close by. Happily 
the rain held off ; we, therefore, soon had a blazing 
fire, and supper, consisting of coffee, bread, conchs, 
and a heron, whose breast was even a better tidbit 



38 HERE AND THERE IN VUCA TAN. 

than that of a young parrot — which is saying a good 
deal. During the night it rained in torrents, but 
under shelter of the sheds we were not disturbed 
by it. 

Next morning we sailed to the end of the island, 
or as near as possible ; it is an iron-bound coast 
that would afford no protection to any shipwrecked 
crew. We went back a little way, and hauled our 
boat up on the beach at the end of the bay where 
we had found shelter the night before. Near by 
there were turtle tracks, and soon w^e had trans- 
ported one hundred eggs from the nest to our boat. 

After examining the country around we launched 
the boat. When it was necessary to put it on the 
right course every member of the party wanted to 
be captain ; we consequently stranded on the beach 
five times ; each time the sails had to be lowered 
and the captains to get into the surf to shove off 
ao;ain. When tired of that fun the command was 
unanimously given to Dr. Le Plongeon. We then 
succeeded in starting homeward, and reached San 
Miguel village just in time to escape a tempest, for 
on entering our house we heard a small lizard making 
a noise in a corner of the roof; half an hour later 
a regular '' norther " set in. This lizard is small and 
dark, subsists on insects, and is a veritable living 



BEAUTIFUL COZUMEL. ^g 

barometer. It has a loud voice that is never heard 
except just previous to bad weather: this is so 
well authenticated that, even if the weather is 
fair, no sailor will venture out when warned by that 
lizard. 

The roaring wind and heavy rain beating on the 
broad leaves of the banana-trees around the house 
prevented us from sleeping. When the storm 
abated, just as we were passing into dreamland, 
slumber was rudely dispelled by violent clanging of 
the church bells. A dozen peaceable citizens, dis- 
turbed from their rest, went to see what was the 
matter. They found an old woman pulling vigor- 
ously at the rope. She was quite demented and 
refused to stop her music. They drove her home 
which so provoked her that in the morning she threw 
one of her grandchildren into a well, saying '' it must 
be killed." The child's father being at hand, it was 
rescued uninjured, though much terrified. 

In the villages throughout Yucatan, baptisms and 
funerals are great events, a wake being regarded as 
a mild entertainment. InCozumelwe had occasion 
to see one of those friendly gatherings. 

The patient was a young woman who had lived 
alone. Being suddenly stricken down in a fit, from 
which she never recovered, a neighbor had taken 



40 HERE AND THERE IlSf YUCATAN. 

her in. What Httle property was found in her 
home — fifty dollars, some gold ornaments, and 
clothes — was appropriated by the same kind neigh- 
bor to defray expenses. The unconscious woman 
was placed on a camp-bed, and preparations for the 
wake were at once begun. A demijohn of ^strong 
liquor was bought with the money of the patient, 
also a lot of cake, four pounds of chocolate, and 
plenty of black wax candles. 

Soon the room was full of men and women, re- 
galing themselves with "drinks" and cigarettes. 
Young girls with flowers in their hair and powder 
on their faces were seated around the room, in ex- 
pectation of cake and chocolate. On one table there 
were sundry small ornaments, and a wooden cruci- 
fix before which burned wax candles. On another, 
a pitcher of water, glasses, cigars, and beneath it, 
the demijohn of rum. 

An old woman came in ; the hostess offered her a 
cigar, which she accepted, saying: "Thank you, 
ma'am. Have you got her chickens ? " 

" Yes," replied the other; " they are all in the coop. 
She will be dead presently, and they will be killed 
for this good company." 

" Yes, yes," rejoined the dame, lighting her cigar- 
ette; " woe to us ! what are we in this world ! " 




COZUMEL. 



Page 



BEAUTIFUL COZUMEL. 4I 

The wake lasted two days and nights ; by the time 
the woman really expired, her money was all gone. 
A grave had been dug the day she fell sick ; now 
she was carried to it in a deal coffin. The priest 
was not called to utter a prayer over the corpse, be- 
cause, said they, there was no money to pay him. 

That affair was a nine days' scandal, even among 
those simple-minded people. 

One Sunday evening we received a pressing invi- 
tation to the house of Sefior Mendiburu, the Alcalde, 
whose youngest child was to be baptized. We 
found the parlor illuminated with three or four 
lamps, several women seated on one side of the 
room, men on the other. Upon a table there were 
goblets, and bottles of ale, more expensive there 
than the best Spanish wine, hence preferred. 

The baby was brought from the bedroom to be 
taken to church by the sponsors and the male guests, 
the women remaining at home with the parents. 
On their return the infant was carried back to the 
bedroom, no one manifesting the least interest in it. 

Sponsors are expected to offer a gift according to 
their means. In the peninsula, well-to-do families 
scatter silver incdios among those who follow the 
procession to the church. The guests are presented 
with pretty cards that have a silver or gold coin at- 
tached to them. On the card is printed the name 



42 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

of the child, the date of its birth, and a floral design 
or verses. 

Having baptized the baby, Cura Rejon came to 
the house of its parents ; then the bottles were 
opened, the host himself handing glasses of ale to 
the ladies, and' inviting the gentlemen to help them- 
selves. He expressed much regret at not having a 
band of music as intended — the musicians had been 
called to Island Mugeres — but hoped to do better 
next time. 

It was remarkable that hardly a word was uttered 
on this occasion — the silence was almost solemn ; 
whereas at the wake there had been much animated 
conversation. Do they think death less to be re- 
gretted than birth ? It is a fact that in those coun- 
tries anciently, when a child was born, the first words 
addressed to it were : "Alas for thee ! thou hast 
come to this world to suffer and weep." Looking 
upon a corpse, they invariably say : "At rest ! to 
suffer and toil no more ! " If the deceased is an in- 
fant, they wreathe it in garlands, exclaiming : "An- 
other little angel ! " 

Cura Rejon was called from the baptism party to 
a death-bed. Bidding us good night, he said : "Ah 
yes ! one after another I lay them to rest as they fall 
like autumn leaves around me, but there will be no 



BEAUTIFUL COZUMEL. a-^ 

one to minister the last sacrament to poor old Father 
Rejon when his time comes." 

At three o'clock on the following afternoon the 
funeral cortege started. The cura, dressed in his 
robes, led the way. On his right walked an acolyth 
carrying a vessel of holy water ; on his left, one with 
a prayer-book. They were followed by three or four 
amateur musicians ; next, six men bearing the cof- 
fin, black, ornamented with white. It was open, the 
corpse, dressed in black, exposed. A man walked 
beside, with a table on his head. Men, women, and 
children, some mourners, others idlers, brought up 
the rear. The men were bareheaded, the women 
wore mantillas as at church. They looked sad, but 
the absence of a black hearse, and other funeral para- 
phernalia, seemed to rid death of half its horrors. 

The followers sang a dirge. At each corner the 
procession halted, the table was put on the ground, 
and the coffin placed on it. The priest, with his 
face toward the deceased, then chanted in a sono- 
rous musical voice, the people responding. The sky 
was black with an approaching storm, the thunder's 
distant peal mingling its deep tones with theirs, like 
a note from the grand organ of the Supreme Being, 
After each prayer the priest sprinkled the corpse 
with holy water. Thus they slowly wended their 



44 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

way to the church. At the door the prayers were 
again repeated ; the body was then carried in, the 
bell tolling while the funeral service was performed. 

From the church to the grave the coffin was at 
the head of the procession, priest and mourners fol- 
lowing with the musicians, who played a slow march. 

Before lowering the coffin into the earth, the lid 
was nailed on, and a bottle of rum passed round 
among those present — a parting cup, to wish the 
lamented friend godspeed on his long journey. 



THE EVIL EYE. 

WE find that In many countries there has been, 
and there still is, more or less, a belief in 
the evil effect of certain eyes. The malignant power, 
supposed to exist, is not said to be due to any par- 
ticular color, size, or shape of the visual organ. In 
fact even those who most firmly believe in it do 
not attribute it to any physical peculiarity, although 
Boguet afifirms that sorcerers have two pupils in 
one of their eyes, some in both : they mortally be- 
witch those they look at, and kill them if they keep 
their eye fixed on them. 

In Italy there were sorcerers supposed to devour 
with a glance the heart of a man. The Egyptians 
firmly believed in the Evil-Eye, so did the Grecians. 
In Spain there were people much feared because 
their eyes could distil poison into those they looked 
at. One Spaniard, it is reported, had such a pow- 
erfully bad eye that he could shatter every pane of 
glass in a window just by staring at it. Another 
was employed by the king to gaze on certain crimi- 



46 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

nals condemned to death, for that sufficed to kill 
them. 

The people In Scotland also have a great dread of 
the Evil-Eye, believing that the look of certain 
persons produces very unfortunate results, such as 
turning milk sour, making goats barnen, etc. At 
Plaudern, near Landerneau, in Brittany, if the left 
eye of a corpse does not close, one of the nearest 
relations is threatened by death. 

In the lovely island of Cozumel we were ac- 
quainted with a good old priest supposed to be the 
unfortunate possessor of an Evil Eye. An old lady, 
a near neighbor of his, said to us, in a most impres- 
sive manner, '' When the Senor Cura admires any- 
thing it is just as well to give it to him at once, for 
as sure as you keep it it will die." 

Father Rejon was quite grieved about his eye. 
He often said to us : ''I have done all the good in 
my power to everybody, never refusing to serve the 
poor because they could not pay me ; yet I have an 
Evil Eye ; I do not know how it happens. One day 
I walked through a yard without glancing to the 
right or to the left. — Almost immediately a woman 
came tunning after me, saying: 'Oh, Sefior Cura, 
you have looked at my pig, and it has just dropped 
down dead ! You must pay me for it ; it is worth 



THE EVIL EYE. ^y 

six dollars.' ' What ! ' I shouted. ' Maldicion! Go 

to ! I have not seen the infernal pig, and you 

want to make me pay for it ! ' You see it was enough 
to make a saint swear," added our mild old friend. 

Then he told us another case. ** One of my par- 
ishioners, who had a very pretty little pig, called on 
me one day and said : ' I wish to ofTer my pig to 
Saint Anthony; you will please celebrate mass, and 
the pig is yours.' At four o'clock next morning 
I said the mass, and leaving the pig where it was, 
sent corn to it every day. When the pig had 
eaten more than a bushel of grain, and was well 
fattened, the neighbor paid me another visit. Said 
he : ' Senor, I will pay you for the corn used, and 
for the mass, as also for a second one I wish to have 
celebrated when convenient to you, but I should 
like to keep my pig.' Of course I had no objection, 
and told the man I was perfectly satisfied. 

'* Next morning when I arrived at the church I 
found a man waiting outside the door with two dol- 
lars to pay for the masses. Just as the bells were 
being rung the owner of the pig rushed up to me. 
' Oh, Senor Cura, the pig has swollen ; it is dy- 
ing ! ' What fault had I ? Well, that man did not 
pay for the corn, and even accepted the two dollars 
that I offered to return to him. 



48 



HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN. 



''On another occasion I wanted to purchase some 
fowls from an old woman ; she didn't care to part 
with them. I could not oblige her, nor did I wish 
to, so dismissed the matter from my mind. I chat- 
ted with her awhile, then took my leave ; before I 
reached the garden-gate the fowls fell dead in the 
yard. Then the woman said : 'Ah, senor, your Evil 
Eye has killed all my birds ! Why did I not sell 
them to you ? ' What fault had I ? The heat of 
the sun must have killed the birds." 

The topic was so evidently painful to the old gen- 
tleman that we told him to dismiss it from his mind, 
and join us in a game of malilla. 

A few days later he invited us to go and examine 
a small ancient building, about a mile from the vil- 
lage. It was ten feet high outside ; the interior 
divided in two rooms, each nine feet long, two wide, 
and six in height. Three doors led straight through 
the building, one in each outer wall, the other in 
the middle ; they were twenty inches wide and three 
feet high. 

From one of the outer doorways to that in the 
division wall there was a pier of solid masonry ; on 
either side of it an opening led under the room. 
Making our way below as best we could, we found 
ourselves surrounded by walls made of hewn stones, 




VILLAGE GRAVETAKD. 



Pase 44. 



THE E VI L E YE. ^g 

each measuring three feet, by twenty inches, by ten 
inches. 

Much lower down there was a senate of Hmpid 
water that we did not try to reach, the descent be- 
ing very precipitous, over smooth boulders. In that 
senate^ fourteen years before, Cura Rejon had found 
a small cantaro (water-jug), about half the size of 
those now used by the natives. He kindly gave it 
to me ; it is now in the Museum of Natural History, 
in Central Park, New York. 

At some distance we saw light, reflected on the 
water, evidently from an opening in the rocky vault. 
After searching around the house among the thick 
bushes, we found it. Dr. Le Plongeon, to see with- 
in, leaned forward, putting his hand on what he be- 
lieved was a firm tree-trunk thrown across the hole. 
The Indian who stood by him said not a word, 
though the Cura afterwards affirmed that he must 
have known it was the w\\<\ palma cristi, which bears 
no weight. 

The Cura and I were on the other side of the 
cavity, struggling through the bushes to reach the 
edge of it, when we heard a sound like dry wood 
being splintered, followed by silence. The bushes 
prevented us from seeing anything, and the Indian 
held his tongue. When we reached the brink Dr. 



50 HERE AND THERE IN YU'CA TAN. 

Le Plongeon was making his way out of the pit. 
The stupid Indian did not even extend his hand to 
help him up, till the Cura shouted at him. The 
Doctor had fallen about fifteen feet upon coral 
rocks, and was very glad to find none of his bones 
broken, but a little stream of blood immediately 
dyed the rock on which he had fallen. He bound 
a handkerchief tightly around his head, saw that, 
in effect, the water of the senate was shimmering in 
the distance, illuminated from the hole into which 
he had fallen, then with some difficulty made his 
way out. 

In spite of the handkerchief, blood was running 
down his face. Fortunately we had a gourd ; I 
asked the Indian to go under the small house to 
procure water from the senate. He said it was very 
difficult to reach, admitting, when urged, that he 
was afraid of the spirit of the senate. I therefore 
led the way, the man following unwillingly. He 
was very tall, but it seemed that I must get the 
water myself. In hurrying down I narrowly escaped 
drowning, for my foot slipped and I only saved my- 
self by catching at a projecting stone. Had I fallen 
I could never have been rescued without ropes. 
The apathetic Indian afterwards spoke of my danger 
with the same indifference that he would manifest 



THE E VIL E YE, 5 I 

in giving an account of a day's work. Cura Rejon 
told him he ought to be flogged. 

In spite of all my efforts I could only bring the 
gourd within a few inches of the water; still that 
fellow quietly looked at me risking my life, until I 
drew my revolver and compelled him to fill the 
gourd : he was exceptionally superstitious. 

Dr. Le Plongeon's forehead was cut from the top 
to the extremity of the eye-brow, disclosing the 
bone. We bathed it and bound it tight in a moist 
handkerchief, to check the flow of blood. 

Father Rejon was quite upset, and insisted that it 
was all due to his Evil Eye ! that he would give him- 
self up to the authorities as soon as he reached the 
village. We had difficulty in dissuading him from 
so doing. 

Under a scorching sun we walked back to our 
thatched cottage. Then I had to play at surgeon. 
Certainly the patient was much to be pitied in my 
hands ; nor did I like the business. It was a jagged 
wound ; bled for six hours, in spite of perchloride 
of iron, and refused to close by first intention. After 
a new skin had formed, I had to cut it to extract 
splinters that worked their way to the surface, 
though we believed they had all been washed out. 

Cura Rejon, who said he would never forgive him- 



52 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

self for having taken us to the senote, one day 
brought a very peculiar leaf to put on the wound. It 
is thick and pear-shaped. On one side there is a 
thin skin that, being peeled off, discloses a resinous 
substance which causes the leaf to adhere to the skin, 
drawing the lips of any wound together in a very 
short time. It irritates the nerves, for at the end of 
a quarter of an hour, Dr. Le Plongeon had tooth- 
ache, and a pain under his tongue. 

The accident at the senate was added to the list 
of evils the worthy village priest attributed to his 
unfortunate eye. 



PYGMIES, REAL AND FICTITIOUS. 



IN almost every country pygmies figure either in 
history or tradition. Tradition always has some 
foundation ; man only weaves fiction from facts, and 
the best novelists are close observers of human 
nature. How many things long regarded as fables 
have been proved true ! Herodotus, the father of 
history, who lived B.C. 484 years, was once called 
the father of lies, yet many of the stories told by 
him have been proved correct. Marco Polo, who in 
1274 went with his father to Tartary, China, different 
parts of India, Persia, and Asia Minor, though an 
illustrious traveler and writer, was considered very 
untruthful : nevertheless the more we learn of those 
countries, the more accurate his accounts appear. 

The stories of the ''little people," fairies, sprites, 
and elves, must have originated from the existence of 
an extremely diminutive race, a vague recollection of 
which has passed from generation to generation. 
Fable makes the pygmies two feet high. The Greeks, 
having known of giants, as if to make a contrast, pic- 



54 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

tured to themselves these pygmies, getting the ide^ 
from certain inhabitants of Ethiopia, called Pechi- 
nies, who were very small ; perhaps the ancestors of 
the Dokos of the present day. Swift made Gulli- 
ver find men six inches high in the Isle of Lilli- 
put ; but Cyrano de Bergerac, in his imaginary voy- 
age to the sun, found people not bigger than his 
thumb. 

Among the many ludicrous stories told of pyg- 
mies, is that of a certain King of Bavaria, who, at his 
wedding-feast, was served with a pie from which a 
tiny dwarf, armed with lance and sword, jumped out 
on to the table, to the great astonishment of all the 
guests. 

Apart from such extravagant tales, there are proofs 
that very dwarfish people have lived and do live, in 
different places. Some years ago, on the banks of 
the river Merrimac, twenty miles from the Isle of 
St. Louis, a number of stone tombs were found 
arranged in symmetrical order ; none of them were 
more than four feet long, and the human skeletons 
within them only measured three feet, though the 
teeth showed that they were adults ; the skulls were 
out of proportion with the rest of the body. 

Aristotle, who was a great naturalist, said that 
trustworthy witnesses testified to the existence of 



P YGMIE S, RE A L AND FIC TITIO US. 5 5 

minute men ; that they lived in caves washed by 
the waters of the Nile. Pliny even gives various 
details regarding their habits, and the geographical 
position of the places where they dwelt. On the 
banks of the upper Nile, where the Greeks located 
the pygmies, modern travelers have found whole 
tribes of dwarfish men. 

In Russia and Turkey, until quite lately, great 
sympathy was felt for dwarfs, they being generally 
considered keen-witted and often talented. In 
Germany, in the eighteenth century, a dwarf was 
regarded as a necessary appendage to every noble 
family. In this present century there have been 
isolated cases of extremely small people, as, for in- 
stance, Richebourg, who died in Paris in 1858 at the 
age of ninety ; he was twenty-three inches high. 
During the revolutionary period he is said to 
have passed in and out of Paris, as an infant in the 
arms of a nurse, with dispatches very dangerous to 
carry, wrapped in his baby clothes. 

In Mexico, especially in the State of Yucatan, 
and adjacent islands, there are many stories current 
about dwarfs. If the natives are questioned con- 
cerning the builders of the old ruined edifices found 
in those parts, they invariably say, '' The Aluxob 
(pygmies) built them." In the islands of Cozumel 



56 HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN. 

and Mugeres there is a firmly rooted belief that 
"little people" wander around at night; many 
solemnly protest that they see them, and accuse 
them of disturbing their slumbers by hammering 
on benches and shaking their hammocks. 

On the east coast of Yucatan there are various 
places, such as Nisucte and Meco, that any traveler 
may visit, though he must go armed, and keep a sharp 
look-out for Indians, who may fall upon him at any 
minute. There can be seen vestiges of ancient cities, 
all the houses made of stone, but not large enough 
for people more than three or three and a half feet 
high to occupy with any comfort. 

In Cozumel Island there exist well-constructed 
triumphal arches only nine feet high ; sanctuaries, 
and temples of worship, built of carefully hewn 
stones ; the doorway of the largest three feet high, 
one foot six inches wide. The entire building meas- 
ures, outside, but nine feet in height, fourteen in 
length, and twelve in depth. The Indian who ac- 
companied us to them affirmed that he always saw 
the "little people "at night, but they never spoke to 
him. He said : " They are very small, and wear big 
hats. Once, at the entrance of a cave in the forest, 
I found a clay figure. It was an enchanted dwarf, 
and he was reading a book. I picked it up to 



PYGMIES, REAL AND EICTITIOUS. 57 

carry it home, then felt afraid and put it down 
again. Next day I returned to look for it, because 
I wanted to have the alux (dwarf), but could not find 
the place again." 

It is affirmed that very diminutive people still 
dwell among the hills in Honduras and Guatemala; 
but no one seems able to say exactly where. This 
would lead to the belief that if there are any still 
living, as so many assert, they must be very few, and 
successful in hiding. Nevertheless, it is related that 
one day, in the year 1825, woodcutters, wander- 
ing along the banks of the Moho river, British Hon- 
duras, in search of mahogany trees, were startled, 
upon reaching a place called Meditation Fall, by a 
strange little being that suddenly emerged from the 
bush, stared wildly at them, and fled. 

The men pursued, overtook, and brought the odd 
creature to their camp. It was a dark-skinned girl, 
about eighteen years old, not quite three feet high. 
She had no other covering than her hair — thick, black 
tresses that reached to her feet, nearly covering 
her. She was very wild, but not stupid. Find- 
ing that they did not harm her, she talked to the 
wood-cutters in the Maya tongue, which they also 
spoke, that being the language of the Indians in 
those parts. 



58 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

As the weather was cool one of the men gave 
her a red flannel shirt, which clothed her from head 
to foot. For a day or two she refused to eat, but 
afterwards seemed contented. She said all her 
people were the same size as herself; that they 
were then living near Meditation Fall, where they 
had a cornfield, though generally they dwelt three 
or four miles away in a deep valley. 

When she had been in the camp about ten days, 
some of the men proposed to go and see her people. 
She manifested delight, and offered to guide them 
to the spot. Reaching the place where they first 
met her, she led them into the forest. Soon she 
motioned to them to stop and be silent. A hub- 
bub of voices reached their ears; the girl whispered 
to them that she would go and announce their com- 
ing, otherwise her folks would be afraid, run off, 
and hide on hearing footsteps. Away she darted ; 
and soon all was hushed as death. 

The men waited patiently; their diminutive guide 
did not return. Convinced that she had very cun- 
ningly eluded them, they went forward, and in two 
minutes found themselves in a cornfield. There 
were embers in three or four places, and small piles 
of corn prepared for transportation. The ground 
had been much trodden, but there was no living 



PYGMIES, REAL AND FICTITIOUS. 59 

creature in sight. They searched in vain, even 
among the boulders, and remained some time in the 
field, hoping that the owners would return for their 
corn. They, however, never saw the girl again, nor 
any of her kin. 

One of those very woodsmen gave us this account. 
Similar stories have been told by others ; they might 
all be doubted were it not for the ruins of diminu- 
tive houses that bear witness to their having once 
existed. 



TRAVELING WITH TURTLES. 

HAVING waited long for an opportunity to 
leave Cozumel Island for British Honduras, 
we decided to go on the Triiinfo notwithstanding 
its uninviting appearance. It was a twelve-ton 
schooner, badly in need of paint ; as for order, the 
limited space made that impossible. The captain, 
called Antonio, was as unclean a specimen of the 
Spanish sailor as we have ever had the misfortune 
to see. The mate was "Antonio the Second,'* to 
distinguish him from his superior ; black '' Jim " was 
cook and general assistant ; a man named Trejo 
serving as pilot. There was no compass on board. 
Such a thing can rarely be found on those coasting 
vessels. 

There were four passengers besides ourselves, all 
of us having plenty of luggage. Add to this twenty- 
five enormous turtles ; some on deck, some below ; 
a large party of hens ; two big cages full of doves ; 
another of canaries ; a spoiled lapdog; cat and kit- 
tens ; two goats ; and a colony of cockroaches of the 



TRAVELING WITH TURTLES. 6i 

largest species. There was not a square Inch to 
spare. 

The cabin was occupied by live turtles, they being 
considered the most valuable passengers: these un- 
fortunate creatures were on their backs, their flaps 
sown together. They evidently suffered, stretching 
their necks to gasp for breath, making most dismal 
sounds in the vain endeavor to fill their lungs, and 
drawing their heads back into their shells at the 
approach of any one. To keep them alive water 
was dashed over them once a day, which favor 
they did not seem to appreciate as much as they 
might have done had the water been thrown on 
their backs. 

We more than suspected that there was a consid- 
erable amount of "contraband " on board ; were also 
well aware that the coast-guard was cruising about 
on the look-out for just such vessels as the Triunfo ; 
consequently the grim face of the captain did not 
often relax into a smile. He betrayed his anxiety 
by asking for the loan of our field-glasses very fre- 
quently, rather to our annoyance, for there was much 
that interested us to be seen on the coast. In return 
for the use of the glass Antonio gave us some infor- 
mation. Among other things he said that all along 
the coast there is a fine variety of excellent shellfish ; 



62 HERE AND THERE EY YUCATAN. 

that one crab, called the '' soldier," also known as 
'' hermit," possesses remarkable curative properties. 
Simply boiled and eaten every day, it cures nervous 
diseases and consumption; while a certain oil ex- 
tracted from it is an infallible remedy for palsy and 
other ills. Of course ! During our brief stay at 
Nizucte we saw a man cook, and eat with great rel- 
ish, a few '' hermits." He was poisoned by them, 
and came within an inch of losing his life. 

One of the Indian villages along the coast is called 
Tancah ; shortly after the occasion I write about our 
Ark of the Carribean went down near there. A 
French bark, bound for Vera Cruz, stranded near 
the village ; it was believed that the Indians killed 
those on board, and sent the bodies adrift, for they 
floated down the Gulf Stream to Cozumel. The 
Indians took possession of the bark. 

On this coast, as in many other countries, the wreck 
of a vessel is considered a godsend, the inhabitants 
thinking they have a right to kill the crew and take 
possession of the ship and its contents. The people 
of Tancah and another village called Tulum have no 
boats; so at low tide they made fast a rope to the 
vessel, and used it to go back and forth, landing as 
much of the cargo as they could. Craving for liquor, 
as always, they went down into the hold, where 



TRAVELING WITH TURTLES. (^t^ 

some remained drinking till unable to move, being 
consequently drowned at flood-tide. 

The inhabitants of San Pedro, a fishing settlement 
on the Island of Ambergris, at the south end of 
Yucatan, heard of the wreck. They are half pirates, 
and at once started off for a share of the spoils. 
The Indians, always hostile to strangers, received 
them with bullets ; they could not reach the ship. 
When the Indians abandoned it, leaving in it what 
they could not carry, they retired from the beach. 
The people of San Pedro and Island Mugeres had 
been keeping a sharp look-out ; they now came for 
the rest of the cargo. 

They were not molested, and found costly dry 
goods and other valuable articles, also casks of fine 
wine and vinegar. In the hold there were many 
dead Indians. 

Having loaded their boats they were about to 
start for home, when they saw that a storm was at 
hand. The captains decided that it would not do to 
venture out to sea until it passed over. Joaquin 
Carballo, owner of the Triunfo, said he was more 
afraid of the Indians who might arrive, than of the 
storm. Contrary to the advice of his companions 
he put to sea, and was never heard of again. 

Three miles north of Tancah, at a place called 



64 HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN. 

Tulum (castle), a grand old castle towers on the 
brink of a precipitous cliff against which the waves 
dash with fury. It serves as a good landmark to 
mariners, being the highest point along the coast. 
That spot also presents the wildest scenery in the 
country, its iron-bound coast reminding us of the 
south end of Cozumel, though much grander and 
more wild. 

The ancient city was surrounded on three sides by 
a wall that had watch-towers at the corners. There 
are two gateways in the north and south walls ; one 
in the east. This fortification was composed of 
rough, flat stones, laid upon each other without mor- 
tar or cement, and varied in thickness between seven 
and twelve feet. The high precipitous cliff forms a 
sea wall, 1,500 feet long, on the east side. The 
Spanish historians inform us that among the Mayas 
the Ruler and his nobles had their dwellings all in- 
closed by a great wall in the centre of the city, the 
rest of the people living outside. From their 
works we also learn that when the conquerors, 
under command of Captain Grijalva, crossed 
from Cozumel, they saw, toward sunset, a burg so 
large that *' Seville would not have appeared bet- 
ter." There was a very lofty tower, and on the 
shore a crowd of natives, bearing standards that 




BELIZE RIVEli. 



Page 60. 



TRAVELIXG WITH TURTLES. 65 

they raised and lowered, to invite the travelers to 
join them. 

Within the great wall of Tulum, which has a cir- 
cuit of 2,800 feet, we yet see several buildings, that 
were at one time decorated with beautiful stucco 
ornaments and fresco paintings. 

The grand old castle, including a wing on each 
side, measures at the base one hundred feet in length. 
The entrance faces inland, and is reached by a stair- 
way thirty feet wide, with twenty-four steps. On 
each side it has a broad balustrade. 

There are two rooms, twenty-six feet in length ; 
low stone benches run along the walls, on which 
are seen imprints of the red hand. 

The east wall has no opening, except small oblong 
holes for ventilation. 

The wings are buildings of two stories, both to- 
gether being much lower than the main structure. 
The stairs leading to the second floor are outside. 

A peculiar feature in the edifices of Tulum is that 
some had flat ceilings, not found elsewhere in the 
peninsula. 

Three miles from the ancient city is a new village, 
Tulum Pueblo, whose inhabitants come regularly to 
the old castle to burn copal, incense, and wax can- 
dles ; and practise rites of the religion of their fore- 
5 



^() HERE AND THERE EV YUCA'J'AX. 

fathers. These people are ruled by a queen, named 
Maria Uicab. It is as much as one's life is worth to 
land at Tulum ; the natives being very hostile, make 
it necessary to be always on the alert and ready to 
take to the boat or fight. 

At dusk the captain of our craft ordered Antonio 
the Second to tell ^' Jim," the cook, to make a clear- 
ing on deck so that the passengers could lie down. 
With difficulty room was made for four or five. 
Two individuals from Spanish Honduras at once 
carefully monopolized it all by spreading a huge 
mattress for their own particular benefit, while we 
had to sit upright in the small space left. 

As we were skirting the edge of the Gulf Stream, 
about midnight, waves washed over the deck. The 
Honduras people and their dog were not disturbed 
by it, being under a large sheet of oilcloth lined 
with blankets. We went down into the little hole 
called cabin, to find that the turtles did not leave 
room for more than one person. The atmosphere was 
sickening, but having a severe cold I remained be- 
low, sitting on the floor among the turtles, keeping 
out of reach of their horny bills, lest they should 
visit their just wrath on my innocent head. 

After a while, insensibly to myself, one of my fel- 
low sufferers was utilized as a pillow. I was aroused 



f 



TRAVELING WITH TURTLES. 6/ 

by members of the cockroach colony that seemed to 
have selected me as a site to hold a mass meeting. 
From a second troubled doze upon my turtle pillow 
I was awakened by a shout and, going to the foot 
of the scuttle, saw my husband holding the tiller, 
giving orders in not sweet Spanish. His attention 
had been attracted by a strange sound; peering 
through the darkness he saw that the boat was sail- 
ing straight toward breakers, but a few yards ahead. 
A glance showed him that the man at the helm was 
sound asleep; he pushed him aside and veered the 
boat. 

Not even a star glimmered overhead; we therefore 
went back about half a mile and hove to till morn- 
ing. Daylight showed that we were entirely out of 
our course, and had been close upon the reefs at the 
entrance of Ascension Bay, where the water is very 
deep and alive with sharks. 

Ascension Bay is eight miles wide at the mouth, 
eleven miles in its broadest part, north and south, 
thirteen miles east and west. The greatest depth of 
water is eleven feet. Across the entrance there is 
a sandbar where the water is but six feet deep. 

Only fishermen now approach this bay to stay 
for a few days at a time, on a cay called Culebra, 
or Snake, at the entrance, because all the territory 



68 HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN. 

around is in possession of hostile Indians; though 
they do not often go there, even to cut the excellent 
logwood that grows so abundantly. Some years ago 
much ambergris was also found in the bay; the 
largest piece discovered there weighed eight pounds 
two ounces. It was sold for $270 in the city of 
Valladolid, Yucatan. 

Behind the reefs, about a mile from the entrance 
of the bay, there is a good anchorage where large 
vessels can safely anchor in from eighteen to twenty- 
three feet of water. 

On the third day out we reached the Island of 
Ambergris, and stopped at San Pedro, a picturesque 
fishing village, surrounded by groves of cocoanut 
palms. 

Here, our suspicions of there being contraband 
on board were verified, for at dusk about 20,000 
cigars were slyly put into a small dory, and taken 
ashore with many precautions, to be afterwards con- 
veyed to Belize on fishermen's boats. 

There was no lodging for us in the village ; we 
therefore passed a horrible night on deck, lying on 
coiled ropes and sails, a thick mist falHng upon us 

Soon after sunrise we started, but were almost 
becalmed for several hours, so did not sight the city 
of Belize, thirty-five miles from San Pedro, till four 




BELIZE RIVEK. 



Page 68. 



I 



TRAVELING WITH TURTLES. 69 

o'clock in the afternoon. As we neared the harbor, 
our pilot succeeded in running us on to mud banks 
three times. On the third we might have remained 
all night, had not a '* colored lady and gentleman," 
sailing their own small boat, come to our assistance. 

The man got on board the Triunfo and helped 
us into deeper water, for which we were duly grate- 
ful. He accepted from the captain some Cozumel 
cigars. At dusk we cast anchor in the harbor of 
Belize, capital of British Honduras. 

We were urgently requested by Antonio the 
First to defer landing until after dark, because they 
wanted to smuggle in a few thousand cigars that 
were still on board, and several demijohns of Ha- 
vana rum. At nine o'clock we were put ashore on 
a lonely wharf, with only the stars to guide our 
footsteps, and tendered hospitality for the night at 
the house of the man who owned the cigars, a 
tobacconist established in the city. 



THE CARIBS. 

WHEN in Belize, we had opportunities of 
learning something about the interesting 
people called Caribs or Caras, a word meaning brave 
man. They are supposed to have existed as a pow- 
erful race in prehistoric times, and to have spread 
over many parts of the globe, their name varying a 
little in each place. They themselves say they came 
from the North; some traditions found among them 
make the plains of Florida their cradle. They were 
in a complete state of decadence at the time of the 
discovery of America; yet heritage was still care- 
fully regarded in the reigning family, great respect 
being shown to the princes and to their religious 
tenets. They were obedient to their laws, and 
clung tenaciously to ancient customs. 

The Caribs in British Honduras go to the city of 
Belize to sell yams and a kind of bread called cazave, 
made from the yuca plant. This bread is in the 
form of large, thin, crisp cakes, and is almost taste- 
less. 



AMONG THE CAR IBS. >ji 

In a crowd these strange people at once attract 
attention by their pecuHar language. It sounds like 
the following syllables ■ constantly repeated with 
great rapidity — gloo-ga log-boo-ga-loog. Strange to 
say they use the French numerals up to ten, though 
French is hardly spoken in British Honduras. It 
sounds odd to hear lui, deux^ trois, qiiatre mingled 
with \\\€\x gloo-gloo talk. The reason of it is that those 
particular Caribs come from Saint Vincent, once a 
French colony, in the West Indies. 

The women dress in skirts, but have no jacket 
over their low-necked undergarment. They twist a 
gaudy striped kerchief round their heads as a turban, 
and wear all the ornaments they can obtain, a favo- 
rite necklace being a string of gold or silver coin. 
They are not accustomed to eat with their husbands, 
or associate with them as companions. Tradition 
has it that Carib men captured these women from 
another tribe and made them their wives; the women 
then swore that they would never be their compan- 
ions, though compelled to serve them. 

It was rumored that Caribs dwelling at Stan Creek, 
a settlement not far from Belize, every year made 
human sacrifice. The late Sir Frederick Barlee, at 
that time Lieutenant-Governor of the colony, made 
inquiries to put a stop to it if possible, Stan Creek 



72 



HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN. 



being within his jurisdiction. The accounts were, 
however, rather conflicting. It seems that once a 
year fifteen or sixteen Caribs, accompanied by their 
wives, retire to an empty, well-cleaned house away 
in the woods. They go in procession to the beating 
of a drum, taking with them one male child five or 
six years old, whose mother is compelled to remain 
in the village. They allow no one to follow them, 
beyond their number ; and when asked to give an 
account of their proceedings say : '^ After we shut 
ourselves in the house, we light a big fire in the 
middle of the floor (the earth serves as floor), and 
stand round it. Then we lie down with our faces to 
the ground, leaving the child standing in our midst 
(where the fire is). When we look up the boy has 
disappeared — he is carried away by Mafia." 

They return to the village without the child; it is 
never again seen or heard of. When urged to say 
what they have done with it, they reply that they 
have given it to Mafia to educate. Every year one 
child disappears in that way, no one being able to 
discover what they really do with it, because, when 
in the great hut where they perform their mysterious 
rite, they take every precaution to prevent one from 
peeping in. Some assert that no boy is sacrificed, 
though they do worship an invisible being that they 




CARIB WOMAN. 



Page 71. 



'4 



AMONG THE CARIES. y-^ 

regard as an evil power; yet they make nothing to 
represent it, and worship no good being. 

When we ourselves questioned a Carib about the 
terrible Mafia, he said it was the Devil, that was 
why they worshiped him; not God, for God was 
good. " Mafia," said he, '^always carries away the boy 
that is offered to him." We asked if he thought the 
Devil ate the boy, desiring to find out whether they 
practiced a little cannibalism; but his very prudent 
answer was, '' Maybe." Nevertheless, among the 
mountains of Guatemala, where, even a few years 
ago, the true Caribs could be found, they from time 
to time indulged in eating a young child or old per- 
son; more by way of a sacrifice than to gratify their 
appetites. The Caribs in Guatemala were almost 
white, those in British Honduras are very dark. 

They also have a dance called '' Mafia's dance," in 
which they make a maiden as intoxicated as possi- 
ble, undress her, then form a circle round her and 
dance, performing all sorts of silly antics; a banquet 
being spread in an adjoining room for the benefit 
of Mafia. The authorities at Stan Creek forbade 
the dance; which order only resulted in the Caribs 
going further away to accomplish it. 

They are polygamists, may have as many wives 
as they can build houses for; because each must have 



^4 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

a separate home. When a man desires to make any 
woman his wife he proposes to her, and, if she 
accepts him, clears a patch of ground; builds a hut; 
plants banana trees; then takes her there. They 
have no marriage ceremony of their own; occasion- 
ally a Carib is now married to his first wife by the 
Catholic priest. 

The women do all the work, even cultivating the 
ground. They have to provide for themselves and 
their children, as well as for the husband when he 
visits them. If a woman ventures to marry one who 
is not a Carib, she is liable to be tied to a post, 
naked, and whipped by any one who chooses to in- 
flict the penalty on her. If a man among them 
leaves his people when a child, he must return 
within a certain period and build a house, or be 
thenceforth an outcast. A boy, who had been taken 
into a white family, when asked if he would not like 
to go back to his people, said: *'Not till I am a little 
bigger, because they might give me to Mafia." 

A ' Methodist minister who was some time in 
Stan Creek said the Caribs were very honest and 
harmless, but great drunkards; that he thought they 
would not kill a child as they feared the sight of 
human blood. They, however, can roast a live one 
without seeing blood. 



AMONG THE CARIBS, 75 

As boatsmen the Caribs are very daring. In their 
exceedingly small dories, they stand upright gener- 
ally, and when seen from a short distance, appear to 
be walking on the waves. With the utmost confi- 
dence they paddle about in deep water, swarming 
with sharks, though if their little boat capsized they 
would almost inevitably be devoured. 



REMARKABLE WELLS AND CAVERNS. 

YUCATAN is one of the most interesting 
States of Mexico, owing to the splendid 
ancient palaces and temples of once grand cities, 
now hidden in the forests. That country also pre- 
sents great attractions for geologists and botanists, 
as well as naturalists, who there find rare and beau- 
tiful birds, insects, and reptiles. 

There are no rivers on the surface of the land, but 
in many parts it is entirely undermined by extensive 
caverns in which there are basins of water fed by 
subterranean currents. The caverns are delightfully 
cool even at midday ; the fantastic forms of some 
of the stalactites and stalagmites, a never-ending 
source of interest. There are long winding passages 
and roomy chambers following one after another for 
great distances. Here and there, through some chink 
in the stony vault above, a sunbeam penetrates, en- 
abling us to see, to the right and left, openings lead- 
ing to untrodden places in the bowels of the earth. 

As few of these caves have been explored, the 



REMARKABLE WELLS AND CA VERNS. jj 

wildest accounts are given by the natives concerning 
the dark recesses where only wild beasts seek shelter. 
Before venturing far in, it is advisable to secure one 
end of a ball of twine at the entrance, keeping the 
ball in hand ; nor is it safe to go without lanterns or 
torches, lest we step into some yawning chasm or 
deep water. The leader of one exploring party 
suddenly saw a very dark spot just before him ; he 
jumped over, instead of stepping on it, and told the 
others to halt. Examination proved the dark patch 
to be a pit that seemed bottomless. 

Awe-inspiring as are the interiors of some of these 
caves, they are frequently most beautiful. The nat- 
ural pillars are often grand in dimensions and spark- 
ling with various hues, while stalactites and stalag- 
mites sometimes resemble familiar objects with as- 
tonishing perfection. It is, however, not advisable 
to place implicit confidence in accounts of the na- 
tives ; for the reality, no matter how beautiful, can 
hardly be equal to what the vivid imagination of the 
Indian has pictured. Anything bearing the least 
resemblance to a woman is called '' a most beautiful 
Virgin Mary." Fantastic flutings become an 
''organ;" a level rock "an altar." Only once we 
were not disappointed, when, having been told to 
look for a pulpit, we found one that appeared as if 



yS HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

man must have fashioned it ; supported on a slender 
pyramidal base, the upper part very symmetrical, 
and ornamented with a perfect imitation of bunches 
of grapes and other fruit. 

As already said, in these caves there are sheets of 
water, some very large, others only a few feet in cir- 
cumference, fed by subterranean currents. When 
the water is clear and sweet, it is peopled by a kind 
of bagre, called by the natives tzau, also a blind fish of 
the siliLriis species. There are likewise medicinal 
and thermal waters, by bathing in which many people 
claim to have been cured of most painful and obsti- 
nate diseases. 

Strange stories are told of some of these waters. 
Of one it is said that those who approach it, without 
holding their breath, fall dead. People who live 
near the place swear it is so, and say the water ap- 
pears to boil on such occasions. From the thermal 
waters, in some cases lOO feet below the soil, and 
not to be reached except by buckets let down 
through an opening in the rock, warm vapoi;^s issue 
at early morn ; but when the sun is high the water 
is cool and pleasant to drink. 

The name senate, from the Maya word jonot, is 
given to all these deposits of water, also to some 
immense natural circular wells from 50 to 300 feet 



REMARKABLE WELLS AND CA VERNS. 70 

in diameter. The walls are more or less perpendicu- 
lar, generally covered with tropical vegetation. In 
some there is a swift current, but no inlets or out- 
lets are visible. The water is deliciously pure and 
sweet, much better than that of wells opened by 
man in the same country. These enormous deposits 
[; generally have a rugged path, sometimes very steep, 
leading to the water's edge. Daring natives throw 
themselves from the brink; afterward ascending by 
stout roots that hang like ropes down the sides ; the 
trees above sucking through these roots the life- 
sustaining fluid more than a hundred feet below. 

In the west part of Yucatan there is a village 
called Bolonchen (nine wells), because in the public 
square there are nine circular openings cut through 
a stratum of rock. They are mouths of one immense 
cistern, whether natural or made by hand the natives 
do not know ; in times of drought it is empty ; which 
shows that it is not supplied by any subterranean 
spring. The inhabitants then depend entirely on 
water found in a cave a mile and a half from the vil- 
lage. It is perhaps the most remarkable cavern in the 
whole country. 

The entrance is magnificently wild and pictur- 
esque. It is necessary to carry torches, for the way 
is dark and dangerous. After advancing sixty or 



8o HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

seventy feet we descend a strong, rough ladder twen- 
ty feet long, placed against a very precipitous rock. 
Not the faintest glimmer of daylight reaches that 
spot. After a while we stand on the brink of a 
perpendicular precipice, the bottom of which is 
strongly illuminated through a hole in the surface 
rock more than 200 feet above. Standing on the 
verge of this awful pit in the dim light, the rocks 
and crags seem to take on most grotesque shapes. 
We go down into the great hole by a ladder eighty 
feet high, twelve wide ; and, reaching the bottom, 
are as yet but at the mouth of the cave, which, by 
the bye, is csXl^d Xtactuibil Xima?i (the hidden lady); 
because, say the Indians, a lady was stolen from her 
mother and hidden there by her lover. Now, to 
our right, we find a narrow passage, and soon another 
ladder ; the darkness is intense ; the descent continu- 
ous, though irregular, like a series of hills and dales ; 
ladders being placed against the steepest places. 

After an exhausting journey we reach a vast 
chamber, from which crooked passages lead in vari- 
ous directions to wells, seven in all, each named 
according to its peculiar kind of water. One, always 
warm, is called chocohd (hot water) ; another, Ojelhd 
(milky water); and Akabhd (dark water). About 
400 paces away from the chamber, passing through 




CARIB HUT AND BOx\TS. 



Page 74. 



REMARKABLE WELLS AND CAVERNS. gl 

a very low narrow passage, there is a basin of (red 
water) cJiachd^\\\2X ebbs and flows like the sea; re- 
ceding with the south wind, increasing with the 
northwest. 

To reach the most distant well, we go down yet 
one more ladder, the seventh. On one side there is 
a perpendicular wall, on the other a yawning gulf; 
so that when one of the steps, merely round sticks 
tied with withes, gives way beneath our feet, we 
tightly grasp the one above. Having reached the 
bottom of the ladder, we crawl slowly and pain- 
fully through a broken, winding passage about 300 
feet long; then see before us a basin of crystalline 
water; and how thirsty we are ! This basin is 1,400 
feet from the mouth of the cave, and about 450 feet 
below the earth s surface. Several hundred people 
during five months in every year depend entirely on 
that source for all the water they use. With their 
frail pitchers and flaring torches they wend their 
way, gasping for breath, through the intricate pas- 
sages. The journey back is even harder, for they are 
tired and loaded ; yet these people are such lovers 
of cleanliness that, arriving at their poor huts, before 
tasting food, they will use some of the water that 

has cost them so much, to bathe their smoke-be- 
6 



82 HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN. 

grimed skin. As several women once fainted in the 
cave, men now always fetch the water. 

Yucatan is, and has been for ages past, quite free 
from earthquakes, while all surrounding countries 
are from time to time convulsed. This immunity 
may be due to the vast caverns and numerous great 
wells existing throughout the land. Pliny the Elder 
was of opinion that if numerous deep wells were 
made in the earth to serve as outlets for the gases 
that disturb its upper strata, the strength of the 
earthquakes would be diminished ; if we may judge 
by Yucatan, Pliny was right in his conjectures. 
After him other scientists,who have carefully studied 
the subject, have expressed the same opinion with 
regard to the efficacy of large wells 



IDOLATRY IN YUCATAN. 



WHEN Hernando Cortez was on his way to 
Honduras, he stopped at a place called Zac 
Peten, or White Island, where he and his followers 
were very kindly received, the inhabitants even 
giving them various presents. 

There, the Spaniards killed a number of deer in 
order to provide themselves with an abundant sup- 
ply of dried venison. The deer were exceeding-ly 
numerous in those forests, because the natives never 
killed them ; the historian Cogolludo says they were 
held sacred. 

After several successive hunts, the horse of Cor- 
tez, being either hurt or exhausted, could not pro- 
ceed on the journey, so its owner left it with the 
people of Zac Peten, telling them that he would 
some day return for it. 

Those people had never before seen horses, and 
perceiving how much Cortez cared for the animal, 
they considered that it must be a creature gifted 
with intelligence. They called it Chaac Tzimin, or 
thunder a?id lightning horse, because, having seen 



84 HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN, 

Cortez fire from its back to kill the deer, they sup- 
posed that the horse was the cause of the report 
and flash which reminded them of thunder and light- 
ning. 

They decided that the Chaac tzimin should be 
fed on what they thought the nicest food ; and ac- 
cordingly offered it plenty of well-cooked flesh and 
fowl ; also presenting to it bouquets of flowers as 
they were accustomed to do with their superiors. 

History does not say whether the horse ate the 
flowers; but the fact is that so much kindness, and 
such overwhelming honors, resulted in his death; for 
the poor beast was kept a prisoner on one spot, and 
thus soon starved. 

Those in whose charge it had been left were terri- 
fied at the idea of not being able to return it to 
Cortez. They therefore made an image of stone 
and mortar, as much like the horse as they possibly 
could, and of the same size. This they placed in a 
temple that held a thousand people, and thenceforth 
treated it with great reverence ; so that Cortez, if he 
returned, might understand that his horse had not 
died from want of attention or consideration on 
their part. 

About ninety years later, in 1618, two priests went 
to Peten Itza with the object of trying to convert 



ID OLA TR Y IN YUCA TAN, 3^ 

the Indians to Christianity. They were accompanied 
by some natives of Yucatan who did all in their 
power to dissuade the fathers from their purpose, 
leading them through the roughest places they could 
find. On their arrival the chiefs and people received 
them kindly, treating them with great hospitality; 
only when it was suggested that they should change 
their religion, they said the time for that had not 
yet come. The fathers were allowed to go where 
they pleased and examine everything. They found 
various large temples that would each accommodate 
about a thousand people, and in one of them was 
the image of Cortez's horse, now become the most 
sacred of all their venerated images. It was placed 
in the very middle of the temple, resting upon its 
haunches, the fore part of the body reared so that 
the front limbs were straight, the hoofs touching the 
floor. 

They called it the " thunder god," and told the 
priests all about it. Then Friar Juan de Orbita, the 
most excitable of the two fathers, mounted on the 
back of the horse, and, using a stone as a hammer, 
broke it into small pieces, scattering them over the 
floor of the temple, at which the Indians were so 
exasperated that they raised a great outcry : " Kill 
them ! kill the white men ! they have destroyed our 



86 HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN. 

thunder god ; let them die for the injury they have 
done! " 

The priests, instead of showing fear, knowing well 
the language of the natives, scolded them for their 
idolatry; made a long speech explainingthe Christian 
doctrine, and showed them the crucifix, by which 
they gathered that they must worship the cross in- 
stead of the horse. They were so thoroughly mys- 
tified that they went quietly to their chief Canek. 
Seeing that he said very little, they too held their 
peace. 

The fathers, however, could not induce anyone to 
become Christian ; so they left the island in their 
- canoe, taking with them handsome presents from the 
chiefs, who told them to return at some future time. 
The people pelted them with small stones after they 
were in the boat ; then stood on the shore mimic- 
ing all they had done. 

A few hours later a canoe suddenly came across 
that of the fathers. In it were several: of the natives 
from Zac Peten. They had painted themselves 
black, were armed with bows and arrows, and had 
followed unseen, by another route, on purpose to 
kill the fathers, so that, as they said, no other 
white man would go to Peten to destroy things and 
bother them. 



ID OLA TR Y IN YU CA TA JV. g 7 

Those who accompanied the Spaniards, and had 
so earnestly advised them not to go, now used all 
their powers of persuasion to save their lives, saying 
that there was no need to kill them since they were 
going away. It was only due to their kind efforts 
that the priests were spared to tell the tale. 

In the forests of Yucatan dwell many Indian 
families, scattered here and there, forming very 
small hamlets, in out-of-the-way places, to avoid 
being taxed or called upon for military service. 
They of course have few comforts; contenting 
themselves with corn, black beans, and red pep- 
per. 

Having no education they are not troubled by any 
ambition save that of keeping their liberty, and going 
through life with as little labor as possible. The all- 
important object in their existence is corn ; the only 
work they never neglect is the cultivation of that 
grain. In the same field they plant beans, the vines 
twining around the corn stalks. 

Their method of preparing the soil for seed is 
exactly the same as that in use by some of the people 
in Equatorial Africa. In the dry season, trees are 
felled in any chosen part of the forest, and reduced 
to ashes in order to enrich the thin coating of loam 
that covers the very stony soil. After the first 



88 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

showers have fallen the grain is dropped into small 
holes made with a pointed stick by the sower, who, 
with his foot, spreads over it a little earth. 

While sojourning in the deserted city of Chichen 
Itza, we heard that some of those simple people, 
living not far from the ruins, had an ancient statue 
that they worshiped as a divinity. Investigation 
proved the report true. 

The statue is kept in a cave, or rather, mine, that 
has been formed by digging out zaccab, a white earth 
used with lime for making mortar. It represents a 
man with a long beard, kneeling; his arms upraised 
so that the hands are on a level with the head ; the 
hands themselves spread wide open, palms upward. 
On the back of the figure there is something that 
may have represented a musical instrument, but the 
natives call it bideuah, a cake made of black beans 
and ground corn. Perhaps it is owing to this 
fancy that they have made it their god of agricul- 
ture. It is not so easy to understand why they call 
it Zactalah (the blow, or slap of a white man). The 
Indians, being beardless themselves, perhaps con^ 
eluded that the statue must be that of a white man; 
and the uplifted hands may suggest to them a readi- 
ness to strike ; although the posture is one of adora- 
tion. There are several figures like this, sculptured 



IDOL A TR V IN YUCA TAN. 8^ 

in bas-relief on the capitals of pillars in an ancient 
castle at Chichen Itza. The faces are unlike those 
of any American race, having decidedly Assyrian 
features. 

Zactalah is no longer white, but grimed with the 
smoke of many candles that its faithful worshipers 
burn around it. Before setting fire to the trees that 
lie in their future corn-field, they carry to the black- 
ened idol, a cool beverage called Zaca; at the same 
time they burn incense, believing to gratify his olfac- 
tory organ, and surround him with lighted wax 
candles, beseeching him to make the trees burn 
thoroughly. 

When they plant, they again go to Zactalah, to 
make similar offerings in order that they may ob- 
tain abundant crops, and that no destructive ani- 
mals may get into the fields to uproot the tender 
sprouts. 

All these favors having been granted, the good 
people are not ungrateful. As soon as the grain is 
ripe, before reaping the harvest, they gather the 
most perfect ears for Zactalah. These primitice are 
cooked and prepared in various ways ; then men, 
women, and children, all leave the hamlet very 
early in the morning, and go in pilgrimage to the 



QO HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

cave, carrying their offerings ; bread and liquor for 
their own use; a very inferior vioHn and a large Uin- 
kel. This is a quaint old musical instrument; a 
piece of wood about three feet long and one foot in 
diameter, hollowed out ; on one side it has a long 
narrow mouth ; on the other, two oblong tongues 
that almost meet in the middle. Its mouth is placed 
on the ground, and the tongues, like two keys, are 
struck with short sticks, whose ends are covered with 
india-rubber to make them rebound. The sound pro- 
duced is like a great rumbling in the earth, and can, 
when the wind is favorable, be heard five or six miles 
off. The word tiinkel means to be worshiping^ and 
the natives use the instrument in all their ancient 
ceremonies. 

Having arrived at the cave of Zactalah, the women 
begin their devotions by removing their garments 
that have gathered dust on the road, replacing them 
by clean ones. Then kneeling before the image, beads 
in hand, they chant the prayers and litanies of the 
Romish church, the violin and tunkel accompanying 
their voices. What a combination of pagan and 
Christian w^orship! 

The prayers are alternated with dancing, by the 
women only; every now and then all take a little 



« 



IDOLA TR V IN YUCA TAN. qI 

fire-water (rum), and when they feel hungry some 
bread, or posole, another preparation of corn. 

In this way they pass hour after hour, till the sun 
is low in the west; then wend their way home- 
waid through forest paths, happy in the thought 
that they have faithfully performed a religious duty. 

The high priest of this venerated image is a white 
man, his assistant being an Indian named Ku, a 
medicine-man. 

The devotees of Zactalah, hearing that we had 
discovered a grand altar supported by fifteen stone 
images (caryatids), came to ask us if they could look 
at them; and having taken a particular fancy to one, 
begged to be allowed to carry it away. 

" What for ? " we asked. They replied, '' We will 
have it in our village, build a nice shrine for it, and 
it shall be our patron saint ; we will light the best 
wax candles for it, and burn plenty of copal so that 
it may protect us, because it is an enchanted soul." 

Not believing them greatly in need of a new god, 
we found an excuse for refusing their request. 

In fact there is not a bit less idolatry among those 
people now, perhaps we are safe in saying that 
there is more, than before Christianity was intro- 
duced among them; at least their divinities are more 



g2 HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN. 

numerous : for now they worship images of saints, 
as well as other figures, firmly believing that they 
have power to do them good or harm ; while an- 
ciently such figures but represented ideas, or served 
to remind them of something higher, as those in the 
Catholic church are intended to do. 



NEW-YEAR'S DAY AMONG THE MAYAS.' 



THE Mayas, like the ancient Egyptians, had a 
solar, or astronomical year of twelve months; 
and a lunar, or civil year divided into eighteen 
months of twenty days; to which were added — to 
make 365 — five days that had no name. The first 
month of the civil year was called Pop. It com- 
menced on what is for us July 16, ending on 
August 5. 

The first day of Pop was a general holiday, also a 
day of special worship. Those who could possibly 
afford it then had everything new — clothing, uten- 
sils, and furniture; even the household images that 
they venerated were provided with new garments. 
All discarded things, every particle of rubbish and 
dirt, were carried outside of the town or village. No 
one thought of touching anything thus thrown 
away, even though they might see useful articles, 
and be greatly in need of them. 

Previous to New-Year's Day the priests and those 

* Published in " Harpers Bazar." 



94 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

gentlemen who wished to take part in certain rehg- 
ious ceremonies, abstained from all indulgence that 
might give them any gratification: and fasted a 
longer or shorter time, according to the strength of 
their devotion to the gods. Some fasted three 
months (sixty days), others only one. Once having 
commenced a fast, none would dare to break it until 
the end of the year, believing that if they did, dire 
misfortune would befall them. Throughout their 
fast they painted themselves black. The priests 
meanwhile elected four officials to assist them in the 
religious services of New-Year's Day. These assist- 
ants, called chacob, were supposed to represent the 
gods of rain and agriculture, also called chacob. The 
duty of the four men elected was to make a number 
of balls and cakes of incense needed for the occa- 
sion. 

On the first day of Pop, those who had prepared 
themselves by fasting and other abstinence, washed 
off all the black paint, putting on red instead. We may 
suppose that the black paint signified the death of 
the old year; as for the red they considered it very 
becoming, using it because it was fashionable. It 
might on that particular occasion have been also 
symbolical of the new fire, likewise kindled on the 
first day of the year. 



JVEJV YEAR'S DA V AMONG THE MA YAS. q^ 

The priests and gentlemen assembled in the 
court-yard of the temple, with only a few aged 
women who had to dance. Before the ceremony 
began, many people came to deposit in the court- 
yard abundant presents in the shape of food and 
drink, with plenty of balcJie, the nectar of the gods, 
all of which was for the benefit of those who had 
patiently fasted. But first the rite must be observed. 

The priests began by purifying the temple and 
the yard with incense; then the devil had to be cast 
out. This was done by passing a rope all round the 
yard, a chac being seated at each corner; an assist- 
ant was given some incense and a goblet of balche 
to carry outside of the village. He was strictly for- 
bidden to taste the nectar. 

Then the four cJiacob made the new fij-e, pro- 
duced by rubbing together two pieces of wood, one 
hard, the other soft. It is a most interesting- fact 
that the pireos or Magi priests in Persia, when their 
sacred fire went out— which they considered a 
great misfortune — had to kindle it in the purest 
way possible; this they did by rubbing tzvo pieces of 
dry wood together^ or by concentrating the solar rays, 
by means of mirrors or lenses, on something inflam- 
mable. They renovated their fire once a year, at 
the time of the summer solstice. 



q6 here and there in YUCATAN. 

In the splendid Temple of the Sun at Cuzco, 
Peru, there were vestals who, like the young Levite 
girls educated in the Temple of Jerusalem, had to 
weave the ornaments of the temple, garments for 
the priests and their household, as well as for the 
family of the Inca. Their principal duty was to 
watch with untiring vigilance over the sacred fire, 
obtained at the feast of Ray7ni, from the rays of the 
sun, by means of a concave metallic mirror. 

In Rome vestals were likewise bound to keep 
alive the fire obtained in the same way at the feast 
of Pales (goddess of the flocks). A similar obliga- 
tion was imposed upon the priestess of Diana-Laph- 
ria at Patras. Any one of those maidens who un- 
fortunately allowed the sacred fire to die out was re- 
lentlessly buried alive. 

Even in the Roman Catholic Church, once every 
year, on the day following Good-Friday, the priests 
make new fire by striking together two stones. The 
officiating father blesses the new fire and extin- 
guishes the old; he also burns incense on the 
freshly kindled coals, and a taper lit from them 
serves to light all the other candles, that they may 
burn with the new fire. 

So among the Mayas, with the new fire the priests 
burned incense to their gods. Then one by one all 



A^EW YEAR'S DA Y AMONG THE MA YAS. gy 

those who were taking part in the ceremony re- 
ceived a small quantity of incense from the priest, 
who was careful not to spill the least portion of it; 
they threw it into the brazier little by little, watch- 
ing it until every particle was burned; the old women 
meanwhile going through a weird dance to the beat- 
ing of the sacred tiinkiil {drum) and the music of 
other instruments, such as the sistrtcm, used in re- 
ligious ceremonies in many countries. 

The priests earnestly besought that the blessing 
of Kit (Divine Essence) might rest upon the people 
during the year. They then felt at liberty to enjoy 
the good things that had been brought for them, so 
a banquet ensued, conducted with the strictest eti- 
quette and good manners; while the people all over 
the land made merry as they pleased till the sun 
sank in the west and New-Year's Day was at an end. 



BONDAGE IN COMMUNISM. 



LABOR is the unavoidable condition of life ; to 
toil for existence an unchangeable law of na- 
ture. From the smallest microscopic insect to the 
largest globe that is forever rushing through bound- 
less space, every atom is active ; every creature 
struggling, toiling, battling for life; millions upon 
millions of individuals bound together, forming one 
great whole, and mutually dependent on each other. 
Whether life is worth living or not, makes no dif- 
ference; the ever-dominant power that we call in- 
stinct, impels us to strive; repels us from extinc- 
tion; we blindly obey. We are weary in mind and 
body, we suffer only : nevertheless we employ the 
proper means to go on existing. " Would that I 
were dead!" exclaims some unhappy wretch; but 
propose to send him forth into the great unknown, 
and see how he shrinks back from the dark abyss 
when the actual minute of yielding up his existence 
arrives Happy or miserable, we cling to life. 



BONDAGE IN COMMUNISM, gg 

Suicides do not disprove this, for they take their 
lives — except in very rare cases — while suffering from 
temporary insanity. 

Work, we must ; and we become more and more 
the slaves of labor as civilization increases and ficti- 
tious wants are created. 

The unequal distribution of wealth, that causes 
such bitterness of spirit and fierce struggles between 
capital and labor, is the natural result of a compli- 
cated social system ; nor is it easy to suggest an 
effective, lasting remedy; for we are inclined to think 
that even the most earnest socialist would be un- 
willing to renounce his right to amass property. 
Furthermore, if the goods of the earth were equally 
divided to-day, within a year matters would be about 
as they are now; for some would hoard, others 
squander, and the more venturesome would specu- 
late, thus largely increasing their wealth, or losing 
it all. 

Beyond a question it is piteous to see a thinly 
clad woman, barefooted, blue with cold, clasping a 
famished babe to the breast that quivers with sup- 
pressed sobs — with grief for the hapless little one 
who can find there no warmth or nourishment : 
while a luxurious carriage rolls by, the gouty epi- 
cure within too ill-humored to take the trouble of 



100 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

throwing a penny to his starving fellow-creature, 
who, with beseeching eyes, implores his aid, as 
the snow-flakes flutter down upon her ragged gar- 
ments. 

But look ! in the snow, at that woman's feet, 
hopping hither and thither on the whitened ground, 
some poor little sparrows eagerly seek a crumb. 
They too are cold and hungry ; their tiny limbs are 
almost stiff. Now, one more lucky than the rest, 
finds a piece of bread ; the others approach, but 
number one hotly defends his own ; will share the 
morsel only with his mate. 

On the other side of the street a fat dog has just 
found a bone. A wretched half-starved cur ventures 
near to plead for a share. Does he get it? 

Alas! we are but human animals. 

Centuries ago, the people of America had a sys- 
tem of communism that we to-day would not tol- 
erate — no ! not even those who declaim against 
capitalists, while in their heart of hearts they hope 
to one day have a capital of their own. 

The Peruvians in South, the Mayas in Central 
America, were then the two most civilized nations 
on this continent ; both were communists, though 
the difference between them was great ; for while 
under the rule of the Incas the system was compul- 



BONDAGE IN COMMUNISM. iqi 

sory, the Mayas adopted this mode of Hfe from 
inclination, being as absolutely free from greed of 
wealth as are their unfortunate and degraded de- 
scendants. 

The Incas ordained that one-third of the land 
should be dedicated to the sun ; that is to say, to 
the maintainance of the temples and priesthood. 
One-third was for all government expenses, pubhc 
works, etc. ; including the support of the royal fam- 
ily, of the army, and to fill the public granaries 
kept for cases of emergency. The remaining third 
of the land was divided among the people in equal 
shares : none could by any means whatsoever aug- 
ment his property. A topo of land was granted 
to every male child, half a topo to every female, 
one topo and a half being considered sufficient for 
the support of a man and wife. Marriage was obli- 
gatory at a certain age ; and as a topo or half topo 
was added to the property at the birth of each child, 
an increase of family did not make parents dread 
poverty for their offspring. Once ^Y^ry year addi- 
tional land was bestowed upon those having a right 
to it. At the death of any individual, child or adult, 
the property reverted to the commonwealth. There 
were no capitalists, no monopolies; consequently 
no great enterprises except those undertaken by the 



I02 



HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN. 



government — and they were many — the costs being 
defrayed by the public treasury. Nor was any one 
ever distressed by want. 

The cultivation of the soil was likew^ise regulated. 
Agriculture was held in high esteem by the Peru- 
vians. The Inca himself, at a festival held in the 
month of November, publicly tilled the ground with 
a golden plow to set a good example, and the labors 
of the husbandman were always facilitated in every 
possible way. 

The first land to be tilled and planted was that of 
the sun, or, in other words, that of the church; all took 
part in the labor. After that they prepared the soil 
and sowed the seed on such ground as belonged to the 
aged, infirm, widows, young orphans and soldiers in 
service ; their wives being considered as needing the 
same assistance as widows: women did not work in 
the fields ; perhaps for this reason the women's allot- 
ment of land was less than that of the man. 

No one had a right to attend to his own interests 
until the land of all the helpless people was sown 
with seed. The Inca Huayna ordered a man to be 
hanged because he dared to till the land of one of his 
relations, who was well and strong, while the work 
for the infirm was yet unfinished ; the gallows was 
erected on the very spot where the man had been 



BONDAGE IN COMMUNISM, 103 

found working. Charity was not merely regarded as 
a virtue to be honored but as a paramount duty. 

This service having been performed for the help- 
less, each prepared the land assigned to himself, his 
wife and children ; if a large family made the work 
too much for one man, it was obligatory for his 
neighbors to aid him. The lands belonging to the 
government were attended to last. 

Thus we see that beyond a limited extent individ- 
ual liberty did not exist. Nevertheless, those people 
were very happy; no wretched beggars dragged their 
loathsome rags and filth through the streets, disfig- 
uring the highway, filling every sympathetic heart 
with sorrow. 

That system extended throughout a population 
of millions, every matter being regulated with the 
greatest nicety. For each ten men there was one 
who had to look after their conduct and interests ; 
these officers reported to others who overlooked one 
hundred individuals. They in turn gave a full 
account of everything to higher officials; and so on 
up to the Inca, the child of the sun, the father of the 
people. 

The Mayas were no less charitable than the Pe- 
ruvians. Not content with giving assistance when 
requested, they searched their towns and villages to 



104 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

find the maimed and infirm ; providing them with 
all the necessaries of life. At the time of the Spanish 
conquest the land was common property; all worked 
together to cultivate it, dividing the product equally, 
after presenting a part to their caciques. They 
never thought of cheating each other. 

They had netted purses, and in the markets treated 
of everything that was in the land. They gave 
credit, lent and paid without interest. Written bonds 
were not in use among them, for none dreamed of 
breaking their word. 

Fifty or a hundred would go hunting or fishing; 
instead of each appropriating his own game it was 
equally divided among all at the end of the day. 
There was such a universal brotherhood among those 
people that when one went traveling he was welcome 
in every house, sheltered and fed as a matter of 
course, nobody thinking of asking or accepting pay- 
ment. To-day, their descendants, though very poor, 
are some of the most hospitable people on the face 
of the earth. Even yet, although entirely in the 
power of the white man, constantly laboring for ex- 
acting masters, they help each other and share 
equally as far as it lies in their power. If fire de- 
stroys an Indian's hut, his home, dear to his heart 
and as great a loss as a palace can be to a prince, all 



BONDAGE IN COMMUNISM. 105 

his neighbors make time to help him get together 
the necessary materials to build a new home ; 
gladly sheltering him and his family meanwhile ; 
with never a thought of reward. They love to hunt, 
and, when they have a chance, go to the woods in 
large parties for that purpose, always sharing the 
game equally. 

In our civihzed communities such an unselfish, 
disinterested condition of life is quite out of the 
question. Our race is in a stage of development 
that makes a similar state of things impossible. Ego 
is now the all-absorbing subject; the foremost in every 
thought and deed. Until we succeed in moderating 
our selfishness there will always be millionaires and 
beggars ; with periodical uprisings of the enraged 
masses, who, in their assault on capital, do about as 
much harm to the rich man as a butterfly's delicate 
wings could inflict upon a stone wall : the wings are 
bruised and weakened ; the wall is unaltered. Only 
when men cease to love money will mankind be well 
off, and that time is not near at hand. 



THE LOST LITERATURE OF THE 
MAYAS.-^ 

The nationsthat peopled the American continent 
prior to the coming of the Spanish conquerors 
are all spoken of as Indians. The word Indian imme- 
diately calls up a vision — at least in the mind's eye 
of many people — of a dark-skinned savage ; not over- 
burdened with clothing, but elaborately tatooed and 
smeared with paint, a towering ornament of gaudy 
feathers on his head, a tomahawk in his hand. 

It seldom occurs to those who have not seriously 
considered the matter that there is no reason why 
this large continent should not have been inhabited 
by as great a variety of people as the lands on 
the other side of the globe, since it was equally 
suitable for the human race. 

Nevertheless, all scientific discoveries made up to 
the present time tend to prove that such was in fact 
the case. The " noble savage " had his place, and 
there was abundant space left for the sage. They 
dwelt in different latitudes ; those of greater civil- 

* Published in " Literary Life." 























PAGE OF TKOANO MxLNUSCRIPT. 

Page 106. 



THE LOST LITERATURE OF THE MA YAS. iq/ 

izatlon lived in the tropical climes, so much more 
conducive to the welfare of man than our temper- 
ate zones. 

It is in Southern Mexico, Guatemala and Hon- 
duras, down to Darien, that the traveler pauses in 
amazement before splendid monumental remains 
that are scattered over vast territories. Who were 
the builders? The people found there at the 
time of the Conquest said they did not know; if 
any traditions existed among them they remained 
untold ; nor is it to be wondered at when we consi- 
der the way in which the natives were treated by 
the European invaders. 

Civilized as they were in some respects, the Amer- 
icans at that epoch were degenerated — as history 
teaches us that all great nations do sooner or later 
degenerate, like individuals who, having reached 
maturity, pass to old age and decay. Even the 
Mayas, once masters of all Central America, the 
hardest to conquer, and the most civilized, would, 
after a few more centuries, have relapsed into a sav- 
age state, into a national second childhood. The 
palaces and temples of their ancestors make the 
peninsula of Yucatan, where there are several an- 
cient cities, a very attractive place for antiquarians ; 



I08 HERE A AW THERE IN YUCA TAN. 

those temples and palaces are elaborately adorned 
with sculptured ornaments and inscriptions. 

If a complex language indicates an advanced 
civilization the Mayas were highly civilized, for their 
language enables one to express the finest shade 
of thought ; even to-day some of the aborigines use 
such poetical forms of speech that it is a delight to 
listen to them telling quaint stories. The priests, 
who accompanied the Spanish conquerors to Yuca- 
tan, felt sufficient interest in the new country to 
write an account of what seemed to them note- 
worthy, though there is not the least doubt that 
they left many things unrecorded ; they, however, 
took particular care to describe the books of the 
Mayas. 

Father Landa, in his work ^^Las Cosas de Yucatan " 
(the things of Yucatan), tells us that the Maya 
priests wrote books about their various sciences, and 
imparted their knowledge to others whom they con- 
sidered worthy of such enlightenment. 

Very good paper was manufactured from the 
roots and bark of certain trees, the surface of the 
paper being made lustrous with a white transparent 
varnish on which it was quite easy to write; the 
varnish was said to be indestructible. The paper 
was made in very large sheets, some of the books 



THE LOST LITER A TURE OF THE MA VAS. 109 

being ten or twelve varas long (a vara is 33 inches), 
of one piece, and folded like a fan."^ 

Archaeology was one of the sciences studied by 
the Maya wise men, which shows that the past was 
as great a mystery, and as attractive a subject 
for them as it is for antiquarians of our days. They 
also had works on medicine, on astronomy, on 
chronology, and geology ; theology too was treated 
of in their writings, and they had a ritual explain- 
ing when certain religious festivals should be cele- 
brated : the art of divination and gift of prophecy 
were likewise considered. 

Many of the gentlemen were instructed in all 
those matters, being much respected for their learn- 
ing, but never spoke about it, or made a display 
of it in public ; they were no doubt bound not to di- 
vulge certain things revealed to them in the secrecy 
of initiation. 

There were individuals who made a special study 
of genealogy; they were frequently employed to 
trace out the ancestry of persons who wished to 
boast of noble lineage. 

They had books containing the early history of 
their own nation, and that of other people with 

* Cogolludo. "Hist, de Yucatan." 



no HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

whom they had had friendly intercourse or war. In 
those volumes there were complete records of what 
had taken place in different epochs ; of the va- 
rious wars, inundations, epidemics, plagues, fam- 
ine, and every important event. 

Doctor Aguilar, a Spaniard who succeeded in 
learning to read some of the Maya writings, said 
that in a book which he took from one of the 
'' idolators, " he read of a plague which had 
fallen upon the country in remote times ; it was 
called Ocna-kuchil^ which, said he, means sudden 
death. {Oena is to sink down, kuchil to come to 
a termination). There was also an account of 
another plague which made such shocking ravages 
that the buzzards entered the houses to consume 
the corpses, the people being no longer able to bury 
their dead. 

The name they gave to inundations and hurri- 
canes was Uunyecil, " flooding or floating of trees. " 

Among the divinities mentioned in their theo- 
logical treatise was the goddess of painting (prob- 
ably of literature, because all their writings were 
painted in various colors) and ^' weaving figures 
into cloth " (tapestry). She was named Ix-che-bel- 
yax. 



THE LOST LITER A TURE OF THE MA YAS. m 

The god of poetry was called AJi-Kin-Xox. (The 
priest who says foolish or frivolous things). 

With the exception of singing and poetry the arts 
and sciences were personified as females."^ 

The Spanish historians tell us that the Mayas 
had remarkable memories and were in the habit of 
reciting ancient fables ; the Christian fathers did 
everything in their power to make them forget such 
folk-lore. To effect their purpose more rapidly 
they made free use of the lash and obliged the vic- 
tims to learn all sorts of stories connected with 
the Romish church. This, of course, was after the 
fathers had learned the Maya language; it must 
be remembered that the conquest of Yucatan oc- 
cupied several years. 

Among those who knew the ancient fables there 
were some very clever actors who personated the 
characters portrayed in such stories. 

Notwithstanding the fact that many of the books 
were on scientific subjects, Landa makes the follow- 
ing confession, as if he were rather proud of the 
deed. " We found a great number of their books, 
but because there was nothing in them that had 
not some superstition and falsehood of the Devil, 

* Cogolludo. " Hist, de Yucatan. " 



112 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

we burned them all, at which the natives were 
marvellously sorry and much distressed. ^ 

Father Cogolludo, who went to that country a 
hundred years later, commenting on the destruction 
of the books, says : " It seems to me that the 
books might have been sent to Spain. " 

Besides burning the paper books, Landa fed 
the flames with twenty-seven large manuscripts of 
parchment (deerskin) ; likewise destroying five thou- 
sand statues, of various sizes, and one hundred and 
ninety-seven vases. 

Words fail to express the regret that one must 
ever feel at this irreparable loss, due only to the 
misguided zeal of a fanatical priest whose intellect 
seems to have been groping in the darkness of 
the middle ages. Could we but have those books 
in our hands to-day, in this age of discovery, 
possibly we should find that some of those very 
things condemned by the good father as super- 
stition and falsehood, were a record of curious facts 
or studies known in times gone by, and now re- 
found. Who can tell? How many of the recent 
discoveries would have been regarded, less than 
a hundred years ago, and even by the most extrava- 
gant minds, as utter impossibilities ? 

* Landa. Las cosas de Yucatan, chap, xli., p. 316. 



THE LOST LITER A TURE OF THE MA YAS. i 13 

Landa had but an imperfect understanding of 
the Maya writings, and has given no translation 
of any of them ; yet, with some inconsistency, he 
made a copy of the alphabetical signs, as well as 
others that stood for the names of days and months. 
It is well that he did this, for although he boasted 
of having burned all the books, four escaped falling 
into his hands — how, it is not known ; and the 
few signs he condescended to copy and keep, now 
serve as a key to the translation of those precious 
volumes. They are known as Troano Manuscript, 
Dresden Manuscript, Codex Vaticano, and Codex 
Lettellier. This last is in the Imperial Library at 
Paris. We are not aware that any of these manu- 
scripts have been copied, except the Troano. 

This one belonged to a gentleman named Tro y 
Ortelano, Professor of Paleography at the Madrid 
University; he lent it to the learned archaeologist 
Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, permitting him to 
reproduce it, the French government defraying 
expenses ; one of those facsimile copies is in our 
possession. 

The Troano Manuscript is divided In two parts, 

one having thirty-six plates, the other thirty-four, 

each measuring about ten by five inches, and 

being separated by broad, horizontal lines into two 
8 



I 14 HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN. 

three, or four compartments, as paragraphs. Some 
of the pages are illustrated by colored sketches, 
others are composed entirely of text. The title- 
page occupies the place of the last page in our 
books ; the seventieth plate being what we call the 
first page. The text is written sometimes in hori- 
zontal lines, sometimes in vertical columns ; these 
columns commencing at the top or bottom, ac- 
cording to the fancy of the writer ; the Mayas in 
this, as in many other things, resembling the Egypt- 
ians. The page must be read from right to left ; if 
the sentences are all in vertical columns, the column 
on the right must be read first. 

In the Troano Manuscript the direction of all 
sentences is indicated by a faint red line beneath, 
or, if in columns, at their side. These lines seem 
to have been entirely overlooked by the few scholars 
who have hitherto attempted the task of translat- 
ting the book; the result may be better imagined 
than described. 

Dr. Le Plongeon has translated part of the Manu- 
script. He finds that it is a work on geology and 
ethnology, containing also an account of some prin- 
cipal events in the early history of the Maya nation. 
For example, part of the history of the Can 
family, is recorded in the second part, correspond- 



I 



I 



THE LOST LITERA TURK OF THE MA YAS. j i 5 

ing exactly to what we have discovered, regarding 
that royal family, in our study of the ancient paint- 
ings and inscriptions. 

The author of the Troano Manuscript appears 
to have had a knowledge of the various strata of 
which the crust of our planet is composed, for he 
has painted them of different colors. He seems 
to have also known that the convulsions of these 
superficial strata, earthquakes, were due to vol- 
canic forces, and to have been acquainted with these 
forces, since he represented the activity of volca- 
noes by appropriate signs. 

In this book we find records of cataclysms by 
which the face of the earth has mxore than once 
been changed, owing to the submersion of some 
lands, and the upheaval of others. It confirms the 
story of the disappearance of a great island, Plato's 
Atlantis, in the Atlantic ocean. The text con- 
sists of very brief sentences that tell the facts in 
as few words as possible. 

How old is the Troano Manuscript? is a question 
frequently put to us ; and one that we cannot 
answer positively. It is, however, our opinion that 
the book was written thirteen hundred years ago ; 
although it refers to events which took place in 
very remote ages. 



llS HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

Like the Egyptians, the Mayas had a demotic 
(popular) and a sacred alphabet ; many of the signs 
in each being similar to those of the Egyptians. 

In the ancient edifices of the Mayas we find 
inscriptions in stone, wood, and stucco. Those of 
stone are in three styles, intaglio, bas-relief, and 
mezzo-relievo. The wood-carvings are in bas-relief; 
those of stucco in mezzo-relievo. 

The writings of Mexico proper (anciently Yuca- 
tan was not part of Mexico) were altogether picto- 
rial. Not so those of the Mayas ; but, like the 
Egyptians, the Maya scholars represented material 
objects by drawing their outlines to render their con- 
ceptions more plain to those uninitiated in the arts of 
reading and writing. 

They also employed symbolic characters, in order 
to conceal truths discovered by them when they 
did not care to make them known to the multitude; 
perhaps believing that ''the secrets of nature or art 
discovered by philosophers, must be hidden from 
the unworthy."^ 

Besides pictorial and symbolic characters, they 
had phonetic or alphabetical signs, letters, which 
they called uooh. The Maya hierogrammatists often 



* Roger Bacon, de secret, open art. at nat., cap. i. 



THE LOST LITERA TURE OF THE MA YAS. ny 

employed in one inscription two modes of writing, 
even three ; the figurative, symbolic, and phonetic ; 
neither of them were like that which among; the 
Egyptian writings is called demotic. 

By the figurative method, subjects of a purely 
physical nature could be presented to the mind more 
surely than by the most perfect phonetic system. 
In writing the names of persons by this method the 
signs used are called totems^ and are images of the 
things they take their names from; thus an individ- 
ual named Fish would be represented as a fish. 

By the symbolical method, ideas were indirectly 
expressed. They consisted for the most part of 
certain emblems denoting different names given to 
Deity, the various phenomena of nature, and certain 
metaphysical conceptions: for example, in the 
Troano Manuscript the busy bee signifies the activi- 
ty of volcanic forces. 

As among other nations of antiquity, so among 
the Mayas, the priests and noblemen were the 
scholars. About the fifth century of the Christian 
era many of these were put to death ; others fled for 
dear life, to wander in distant lands, because the 
warlike and blood-thirsty Nahualts of Mexico invad- 
ed the country and conquered its inhabitants. 

We have reason to hope that at that time the 



Il8 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

wise men concealed some of their books to save them 
from destruction. If we ever obtain the necessary- 
protection, we shall endeavor to bring those vol- 
umes to light. 

It is possible that some old books are yet hidden 
among the extremely secretive natives ; in fact we 
have had vague information of such books on two 
occasions. When we were at Mugeres Island, Don 
Pedro Pobedano, the oldest inhabitant of that place, 
told us that when he was a boy he knew a very old 
man named Jacobo Canul, who lived on the main- 
land at a place called ^ioantun, near the city of 
Motul ; that he had a large Maya book called by him 
sacred writings. In it there were many prophecies, 
'' some of which have been, others are being, ful- 
filled," said Don Pedro. He did not know what had 
become of the old man or his book. 

Again when we were at Espita, in the interior of 
Yucatan, we made the acquaintance of an Indian 
potter, said to be a hundred and fifty years old, but 
having all his faculties, and still working for his liv- 
ing ; his name was Mariano Chable. When we asked 
him if he knew anything about the ancient ruins in 
the city of Chichen Itza, he said, " No, but when I 
was a boy I knew a very old man whose name was 
Alayon, and he talked to me about the enchanted 



THE LOST LITER A TURE OF THE MA YAS. 1 19 

houses. He had a book that only he could read, 
which contained many things about them. I do not 
know what became of the sacred book." 

With the dispersion of the Maya priests, the arts 
and sciences disappeared, or died out; yet there were 
some men who remembered the primitive history of 
the nation, who perhaps had in their possession 
ancient books. The author of the Troano Manu- 
script seems to have had some such documents. 

But the antique or hieratic mode of writing being 
only understood by those initiated in the art, under 
oath of secrecy, a new alphabetical system was need- 
ed. In the mural inscriptions we find also traces of 
a writing that might have been known to the people, 
as was the demotic among the Egyptians. These 
popular letters no doubt served, together with some 
of the signs of the Nahualts, to form the alphabet 
that Landa, several centuries later, found in use, and 
preserved for us at the same time that he destroyed all 
the Maya literature he could lay hands on. His al- 
phabet contains only six letters of the old hieratic 
alphabet, which Dr. Le Plongeon has discovered by 
studying the sculptured mural inscriptions. 

The Troano Manuscript is written with the 7icw 
alphabet, and for this reason we judge that the work 
was compiled after the settlement of the Nahualts 
in the peninsula. 



I20 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

The task of fully translating the volume requires 
much patient labor ; yet would be as nothing com- 
pared with the work of interpreting the mural in- 
scriptions found on the walls of the ancient temples 
and palaces. Nevertheless, this can be done if students 
turn their attention to it, because the alphabet dis- 
covered by us is a key to them, and the language in 
which the records are inscribed is still spoken — 
though many words are lost or changed — by the 
aborigines of Yucatan, who gaze with awe and wonder 
upon the handiwork of their ancestors. 



FABLES TOLD BY THE MAYA INDIANS. 



AMONG the great number of languages now 
spoken by mankind, one of the most melliflu- 
'ous and expressive is the Maya tongue of Yucatan, 
Peten, and the frontier of Guatemala. There is a 
great charm in listening to fables told by the na- 
tives of those places as they have learned them from 
their fathers, one generation after another, for cen- 
turies past. 

The ancient Maya poets, whose writings were 
burned by the first Spanish priests that went among 
them, generally sought in the voices of the animals 
for something that would enable them to give a 
pleasant lesson in morality. Thus it is that the songs 
of the various birds, and even their most mournful 
cries, are explained in fables. We have already pub- 
lished the story of that gorgeous bird called ToJi, 
and how it always cries toh ! toll / (straight ! straight !), 
because at the time of the deluge (destruction of 
Atlantis) it was ordered to perch at the cross-roads 
and direct divers creatures to a place of safety. 

The pretty dove called Cuciitcib seems to be ever 



122 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

grieving. From the depths of those forests where 
sunbeams dance among the leaves and struggle with 
them in a vain endeavor to reach the delicate ferns 
and flowers that nestle below, her sweet but plain- 
tive cry is wafted to us on the breeze that comes laden 
with forest echoes. Soft and clear, each syllable 
strikes our ear — cimc-tii-tuzen ! ending as with a sigh, 
and the Maya poet tells us why the bird is lament- 
ing. 

This violet-plumed dove, emblem of the faithful 
wife, was, on a lovely morning, carefully guarding 
the little eggs in the nest. Along came the squirrel, 
a sagacious and artful creature, and perched on a 
pliant bough near by the tranquil nest. Making 
himself as pretty and winning as possible, he ad- 
dressed himself to the dove. 

" My dear friend, why do you thus always remain 
at home, lonely and unsociable?" 

*' My husband is out," said the innocent wife ; 
'' when he returns I will go. We must not leave 
the tiny eggs unprotected." '' Poor little one!" re- 
plied the sly animal, '^ while you are taking care of 
the nest your husband is amusing himself with other 
doves. This very day, I have seen him with my 
own eyes." 

Like a poisoned arrow, jealousy wounded the 



FABLES TOLD BY THE MA YA LNDLANS. 123 

heart of the dove and she hastily abandoned the 
nest. 

Immediately the squirrel devoured the small eggs, 
having won his breakfast by his own cunning, and 
the credulity of the simple and jealous dove. 

When she returned to the nest, alas ! she sighed 
with anguish to find it empty and the frail shells scat- 
tered in fragments upon the ground beneath ! Since 
then she only repeats in soft and sorrowful accents, 
cuuc-tii-tuzen ! ciiuc-tu-titzen, that is, *^The squirrel de- 
ceived me, the squirrel deceived me." 

The fable concludes by saying that in view of 
what happened to the dove, the married woman 
should always be extremely prudent; and that people 
in general should be on their guard against malig- 
nant and cunning mischief-makers, who are ever 
ready to reach their own ends by cheating unsus- 
picious people. 

A similar fable is that of the owl and the iguana 
(large lizard), supposed to account for the doleful cry 
of certain owls that give vent to prolonged O's ! at all 
hours of the night. 

In a snug little grotto the mother owl was arrang- 
ing her feathers and saying to herself. *' I shall go 
when he returns." 

Soon her mate was by her side, ana she told him 



124 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN, 

to be very watchful, because she had seen a large 
iguana close by. " Be sure you do not abandon the 
nest one minute," she said, as she put the last touch 
to her feathers and flew away. 

Hardly was she out of sight when an acquaintance 
came to invite Mr. Owl to go a short distance with 
her to look at her own beautiful offspring that had 
just opened their lovely eyes. 

" Impossible !" he said, '' my wife has left me to 
take care of this nest." 

But the other enticed him, saying. '' You can re- 
turn immediately, and she will not know you have 
been out." 

The foolish bird allowed himself to be persuaded, 
and away he flew to gratify his neighbor's wish and 
his own curiosity. 

Meanwhile, the dreaded iguana had the nest in 
view, being on the trunk of a tree near by. As 
soon as the white-breasted owl had gone, he crawled 
down to the ground and rustled through the dry 
leaves scattered at the foot of the tree. Stealthily 
approaching the coveted eggs he carefully took one 
between his jaws and went behind a big stone to en- 
joy his ill-gotten meal. Before he had time to go 
for the other, the truant owl returned, and great was 
his dismay. 



FABLES TOLD BY TLLE MAYA LNDLANS. 125 

'* Is it possible ! " he exclaimed, '^ why ! I have 
only been away a minute. What can I do ? Come 
what may, I shall not say that I have left the nest, 
and I will try to persuade my wife that there was 
but one &^^ when she went from here." 

Very soon he saw her coming and his heart was 
all in a flutter, but he tried to look unconcerned as if 
nothing had happened. He stood on one side of the 
nest and made himself as pretty as he could to at- 
tract her attention ; but the maternal eye instantly 
fell on the nest, and a cry of indignation made the 
owl start. However, with feigned surprise he said : 
'' Why! what's the matter? " 

'' Wretch ! where is the other ^'g%'^ " she demand- 
ed 

" Other egg ! " echoed he. 

'' Yes, other egg ! There were two, and well you 
know it. Monster ! you have been away and the 
iguana has come." 

Pretending to be very innocent, the owl opened 
his eyes wider and said : " You are certainly mis- 
taken; there was only one egg.'' 

But his wife knew better, and upbraided him bit- 
terly, in spite of his assertion that he knew nothing 
about it. Loudly lamenting her loss she searched 
around the grotto, piteously exclaming O ! O ! O ! 



126 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

and soon found fragments of egg-shell which told 
their own sad story, and destroyed all her doubts and 
the confidence that she had ever had in her mate, 
who had lied to try to hide the wrong he had done. 
Ever since then the owl has remained inconsolable, 
and in the dead of night we hear her bewailing 
her loss, always repeating O ! O ! O ! Now this, 
concludes the poet, should teach us never to be per- 
suaded to do what is contrary to our conscience or 
good judgment, if we would keep out of trouble. 



MAYA ROMANCE. 

IN the famous city of Chichen Itza there is much 
rejoicing and great preparation, for Chanbel, 
the valiant and noble young lord, is to be united to 
the beautiful Lila (dew-drop). 

And she ? Alas ! the tears fall thick and fast from 
her dark lashes when her 'hand-maids are not by; 
she loves not Chanbel. He is good and devoted, 
but her heart is given to another whom she has been 
forbidden to see, even to think of, because when 
yet a babe she was betrothed to the one who will 
soon so gladly claim her as his bride ! For she is 
beautiful as the loveliest flower ; with eyes bright as 
the glorious sun they worship ; gentle as the placid 
water of the lakelet; pure as the mountain air; — so 
says Chanbel, and he is happy. 

Lila wanders amid the flowers on the broad ter- 
races surrounding her childhood's home ; her maids 
marvel at her down-cast looks. Is she ill ? Have 
they displeased her ? No, but she wishes to be alone. 



128 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

They retire. Then she abandons herself to her 
meditations. '' Cruel fate ! that binds me to one I 
can never love ! Where, where is my beloved Canek!" 
Her sad eyes linger upon the setting sun that to- 
morrow will shine on her unhappy nuptials. But 
see ! she starts ! for there near the foot of the terrace, 
stands Canek. One sign and he is gone. Lila is 
transformed. Her eyes are bright, her cheeks flush- 
ed — she has understood. 

The day dawns fresh and fair ; the bride is made 
ready. Joyous as the gayest bird warbling amid the 
bright blossoms of her garden, she comes forth from 
her chamber to adore the rising sun ; no one could 
suspect that she loves not Chanbel. 

Now music resounds on all sides ; the banquet is 
prepared, garlands wreathe the great stone pillars, 
flowers strew the floor. Who so happy as the bride- 
groom ? for Lila smiles; and at eventide the white- 
robed Tatkin (priest) will wed them. Suddenly, 
louder than the acclamations and songs of glad- 
ness, there resounds upon the balmy air a war 
cry. What ! are they not at peace with every 
nation ? And yet — warriors are rushing at full 
speed towards the festive scene. ''To arms! to 



arms i 



I" 



The banquet hall is invaded ; confusion reigns. 



MA YA ROMANCE. 



29 



The women flee to inner chambers, wailing '' Lila ! 
Lilal" The men fight desperately ; Chanbel is in- 
sane with rage. He slays man after man, for his 
promised bride has been carried away in thearmsof 
their leader. The hall decked with flowers becomes 
a scene of carnage; the floor is stained with wine and 
blood. 

Away ! away ! go Canek and Lila ; not daring to 
stop till far beyond the domains of the powerful 
empire from which they are fleeing ; only resting 
beneath the trees when night overtakes them ; sub- 
sisting on the fruits of the forest. After many days 
they reach a beautiful lake where boats await the 
dauntless Canek and his stolen bride. Then they 
set sail, and soon arrive at the other side of the 
lake Peten Itza, where they make their home, 
calling the place Tinibacan, which means " Where 
we spread our sails to dry." 



PHILOSOPHY OF AN INDIAN SAGE. ^ 

THE day was dying, and the great crimson 
orb, surrounded by golden and purple clouds, 
half sunk below the horizon, looked like the domed 
roof of some vast temple. Each wrapped in his own 
thoughts, the aged man and I, together admired the 
exquisite beauty of that sky; but how differently 
did it impress us ! The sage, wrinkled and bent, 
was reminded by the setting sun that his day too 
was drawing to a close ; something like a sigh es- 
caped him. Was it regret or anticipation of release? 
'' Father, " I said, ''such a scene fills my soul with 
delight, with hope. The beautiful colors and forms 
make me revel in dreams of brighter lands, of a bet- 
ter state, where there shall be only joy and good- 
ness. Surely in time man will become more perfect 
even here. There is much to hope for ; we must 
have faith in the future. What sayest thou ?" 

Raising his head, the old man said, '' Hope ! faith! 
enchanting illusions, interminable anticipations 

* Published in " Home Journal," and in the " North British Adver- 
tiser " of Edinburgh, 



PHILOSOPH Y OF AN INDIA N SAGE. 131 

never to be fulfilled ! Afar off we see a glittering 
light, soft and clear as that of the fire-flies that illu- 
mine the darkness of night. It is distant, very dis- 
tant ; that distance is the future, unknown, mysteri- 
ous, always before us, never to be overtaken. We 
see the bright beam, but between it and us all is 
vague and shadowy. The solitary light is hope, 
with its glowing radiance, its deceptive mirage ; 
hope that instills into us life and courage to go on — 
on — into the dim future of many griefs and few 
joys ; that future from which, could they peer into 
it, many would shrink aghast, and to which others 
would wish to rush blindly forward to gather the yet 
unripe fruit that in their ignorance — poor fools ! — 
they think will give them happiness. O, soft ray ! 
O, fair hope ! everchanging, never, never true ! for 
delightful as the reality may be, how far does it fall 
short of the expectation ! The nectar we have 
longed to quaff no sooner reaches our lips than it 
becomes embittered ! Hope is but a vain shadow, 
and we cling to it as to a strong anchor ; like the 
bright reflection cast by a mirror, its light with- 
drawn leaves us in yet greater darkness. Daughter, 
those who have no hope are never disappointed. " 

'' Ah, let us not lose it !" I interrupted ; '' better to 
be disappointed than hopeless ; few indeed are 



n2 



HERE AND THERE IN YUCA TAN. 



the brave souls that need not hope ; many a weary 
spirit, without that one poor consolation, would pass 
through its joyless existence like a wanderer in the 
desert without sun or star to guide him on. " 

But the sage said, *' Happy is he who after a lapse 
of years can yet hope ! Happy the one whose heart 
has not grown sick from hope long deferred ; for 
hope departed, can faith exist? Faith is hope's 
youngest sister. We hope, and have faith that our 
hopes will be realised. We cease to hope — for what 
then do we require faith ? Faith for the hour in 
which we are, is not needed. Faith, embracing hope, 
is in the future ; both are in fact mere words, void of 
meaning even for the most hopeful and faithful. " 

Gazing upon the wrinkled face of my companion 
my heart was filled with pity for one who had been 
robbed of all life's sweet illusions, and I said, '' At 
least we have the happiness of doing good to the 
sorrowing and needy ; we may ever rejoice in the 
exercise of charity. And yet, can lovely charity ex- 
ist where hope and faith have fled ? " 

" No !" replied the aged man ; " if we hope not for 
better things, have faith in no one, in nothing — the 
motive for charity is gone. Why put forth a hand 
to raise the fallen if we have no hope for them, if we 
believe they will fall again as surely as the sun will 



PHILOSOni Y OF A K IXDIA N SA GE. 133 

rise to-morrow? To relieve the temporary wants of 
a fellow-creature is called charity. The beggar wan- 
ders forth from his wretched hovel with hope and 
faith to win something from charity. He succeeds 
and shares his morsel with one as miserable as him- 
self. The beggar in that brief hour exercises hope, 
faith, and charity. Thinkest thou that he would 
share the food if his heart was not buoyed up with 
the hope of obtaining more ? Assuredly not ! Had 
he not faith in to-morrow, he would not give away 
the mouthful that might preserve his own life. Let 
me tell thee, O, deluded young dreamer ! that char- 
ity is trodden in the dust when the great law of 
self-preservation thrusts itself forward. Ah no ! 
that beggar would hoard the fragment of food as 
a miser his treasure. In hopes of obtaining more 
to-morrow he is charitable to-day. Believe me, 
daughter, such is life in its stern reality. Poor hu- 
manity ! with all its pride, its vices, its prated vir- 
tues, what is it ? . Make a hole in the earth, fill it to 
the brim with flesh — human or not human, all flesh 
is alike — return to that spot a few days later ; gaze 
upon that same flesh. Ah ! thou recoilest ! None 
could recognize mother from brother, father from 
sister. All identity is gone, and millions of iden- 
tities will spring from the destruction, identities 



134 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

that we either ignore or regard as infinitely inferior 
to ourselves ; identities that are, in fact, no less im- 
portant in the Great Whole than we — we who con- 
sider ourselves of such vast interest to the Supreme 
Power ; we, who deem ourselves so wise ! though we 
cannot even in our brief mundane life, learn half the 
wonders of the world we inhabit — this little ball of 
matter ! Spread some earth over the pitful of flesh 
so foul to our coarse sight. Soon it will yield most 
sweet-scented flowers, nevertheless they and their 
perfume are the product of corruption. " 

The old man paused. Stretching my hand toward 
the darkening heavens, already studded with a few 
glittering stars, I asked him, '' Is there, then, no 
perfect happiness in any part of that immensity, no 
divine abode where sorrow is unknown ?" 

" Happiness and sorrow only exist by comparison. 
The two conditions are as inseparable as light and 
shadow. Wert thou to live a million years in every 
part of the universe, thou couldst- never escape all 
pain. To be, is to suffer as well as to rejoice. Subdue 
thy emotions in order to be less sensitive to grief, 
and thy capacity for joy will likewise be decreased. 
If thou wouldst know the way to avoid suffering as 
far as it lies in thy power, I admonish thee to com- 
mune much with nature, and little with man ; and if 



PHILOSOPHY OF AN INDIAN SA GE. 135 

thou deslrest a cheerful spirit, see that thy body en- 
joys perfect health. For the rest, let conscience be 
thy guide — that is, do always what thou believest 
right. " 

'' Canst tell me, father, what is truly right, what 
wrong?" 

" The law-givers of each land will assure thee that 
right is to obey their mandates ; and will chastise 
any divergence from them ; while Nature, inexorable, 
will instantly inflict the penalty of any disobedience 
to her laws. Vice is to do anything that is un- 
natural. It is right for the creatures peopling sea 
and air to prey upon and devour each other ; they 
obey that supreme law, self-preservation. Harsh as 
it may sound, selfishness is a law that all must obey. 

'' Those creatures follow that unerring guide called 
instinct, almost destroyed in man, who is now in 
a pitiable intermediate condition ; having enough 
intelligence to enable him to make himself miserable 
by abusing instead of using. Alas ! will he ever 
be intellectual enough to seek happiness through 
perfect obedience to nature's laws? The fanatic 
fasts until he is horrible to look upon, heaping indig- 
nities and torments on his unfortunate body. The 
glutton forces into his poor stomach what would 
be enough to keep two or three men in good health. 



136 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

Are not the fanatic and the glutton equally culpable 
and wretched ? Be moderate in all things ; crave 
neither wealth nor honors, for only knowledge and 
wisdom can give true satisfaction. Ponder my 
words, daughter, and if thou dost not realize them 
to-day, thou wilt do so at some future time when we 
see each other no more. " 



SUPERSTITIONS CONCERNING ECLIPSES.^ 



FROM time immemorial, most peculiar ideas 
have been and are entertained in different parts 
of the world concerning eclipses and their cause. 
The Hindoos believe that a black demon seizes the 
moon with its claws. As long as darkness prevails, the 
air is filled with lamentations, men, women, and 
children entering the rivers, where they remain up 
to their neck in water until the return of light. 

The Siamese priests (Talapoins) believe that when 
the moon is eclipsed a great dragon is devouring it ; 
in order to oblige him to let go his prey they make 
all sorts of abominable noises. 

The Chinese, like the Laplanders, are convinced 
that an eclipse is the work of demons ; and make a 
great hubbub to frighten them away. 

The Romans believed the eclipses to be the work 
of magicians, and that a great noise could prevent 
them from hurting the moon. Plutarch says that 
Aglaonice, during an eclipse of the moon which she 
predicted, persuaded the women of Thessalica that 



* Published in " Scientific American." 



138 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

by her magic songs she had not only the power to 
darken the moon, but to oblige it to descend upon 
the earth. 

The Greeks, and the inhabitants of Asia Minor, 
stood in excessive awe of eclipses. According to 
Herodotus, in the year 610 B. C, while a battle was 
raging between the Lydians and the Medes, an 
eclipse of the sun, predicted by Phales of Millet, oc- 
curred. It not only put an end to the fight, but the 
contending parties hastened to make peace, cement- 
ing the treaty by the marriage of Aryenis to Astya- 
ges. 

If we now turn to America, we find that the Peru- 
vians, Mexicans, and others, were terrified by the 
phenomenon. The Peruvians particularly dreaded 
the eclipse of the moon ; they imagined that Luna 
was suffering from one of the mysterious diseases 
to which she was supposed to be subject, and feared 
that the queen of night might burst open and fall 
upon them. To avoid such a terrible calamity, and 
awaken her from her lethargy, they would sound loud 
instruments, shout at the top of their voices, and 
beat the doo;s to make them howl. This custom of 
making a racket during an eclipse still obtains all 
over Peru, even in Lima. 

The Mexicans imagined that eclipses occurred 



S UPER S ri TIONS CONCERNING E CLIP SE S. 139 

in consequence of a family squabble between the 
sun and moon, and that the moon was wounded in 
the fray. The frightened men observed rigorous 
fasts, the women inflicted corporal punishment on 
themselves, and young girls drew blood from their 
arms. 

In Yucatan, the descendants of the Mayas are con- 
vinced that when Luna is eclipsed she is sick in con- 
sequence of beingbitten by some large American war- 
like ants called Xtilabs, and that they will devour her 
if she is left without help. To frighten away her 
enemies they beat drums, blow shell trumpets, shout, 
beat their dogs, pinch the cats' tails, and fire rockets 
and guns towards the moon. 



EVOCATION OF SPIRITS. 



IN Belen del Gran Para, among the most ignorant 
of the natives, there are medicine men and women 
who frequently make very successful cures by mys- 
terious means, saving patients that have been pro- 
nounced incurable by licensed physicians ; such cases 
become widely known. 

These medicine men say they work by order of 
spirits of the fire and spirits from the bottom of the 
deep ; those who claim the help of the fire spirits are 
said to cure best. Each of these peculiar doctors is 
supposed to be influenced by a tribe of unseen beings 
subordinate to a superior, who takes charge of the 
most difficult cases, and whose opinion is highly re- 
spected. The invisible healers are said to be ghosts 
of people who belonged to the most ignorant classes 
of humanity, — black slaves, white roughs, savage 
Indians, cruel pirates, etc., each answering to some 
particular name. 

Besides his fixed number of assistant spectres, in 



E VO CA TION OF SPIRITS. j 4 1 

whom the medicine man has unbounded confidence, 
others attend when permitted by the chief ghost — 
that the medicine-man pretends to hear, see, and 
touch when alone, and without whose permission he 
dares not hold intercourse with inferior spirits. 
The men say that they themselves know nothing of 
disease or medicine, but that after a while they are 
unable to free themselves from the authority of the 
invisible beings who impose upon them the mission 
of always curing, at least with only intervals of a few 
days ; if they do not comply, the master punishes 
them, even corporally. On the other hand, when 
they work faithfully and well the master is complai- 
sant, taking particular care to cure those dear to the 
medicine man. The more moral the doctor, the more 
certain the cure, they say ; those who have acquir- 
ed bad habits are influenced by evil spirits that, far 
from benefiting, harm the patient. Upon such, all 
look with horror and condemn them as wizards. 

The police of Para pursue these,medicine men and 
women relentlessly; while the lower classes of socie- 
ty tacitly protect them, and will never point out the 
places where they hold their meetings. 

The medicine man appoints a certain day for pa- 
tients who desire to consult him, with their families, 
and any friend who has obtained permission to be 



142 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

present; they go at night-fall — one or two at a time, 
not to attract attention — ^to some house in an unfre- 
quented spot, not to be surprised by the police or 
annoyed by outsiders. 

About nine o'clock the visitors, never less than 
fifteen or twenty, must be at the place indicated. 
They are recommended to be very circumspect, to 
have much faith in all they see and hear, and to sing 
with each spirit certain verses that correspond to 
them. The doors are well closed, and no one can 
leave till the meeting adjourns, except with the mas- 
ter's permission. Sometimes they are closeted till 
early dawn. 

The medicine man first occupies himself for about 
an hour in slowly making ten or twelve cigars, very 
thick, and nine inches long, mixing with the tobacco 
a small quantity of pulverized incense, and wrapping 
it in very thin bark. There are two bottles of fire- 
water on hand for the libations of '' the spirits." 
They also have a small hollow globe made of wood, 
perforated with many holes; inside there are pebbles 
to rattle. This primitive kind of sistrum is secured 
to a handle, and the medicine man uses it to call the 
master of the spirits; they say that he gave it to 
them for that purpose, as well as another instrument 
made of buzzard feathers. 



EVOCATION OF SPIRITS. i^^ 

After various preparations the doctor diminishes 
the light as much as possible without extinguishing 
it ; and concentrates his thoughts, slowly smoking 
one of the cigars. From time to time he introduces 
the lighted end in his mouth, absorbing a quantity 
of smoke ; he also takes one of the instruments men- 
tioned, and sounds it rapidly close to his ears. With 
his mouth he fumigates his arms and hands, in 
the form of a cross, until, compelled by the repe- 
tition of these operations, he closes his eyes and 
seems to be in a somnambulistic state. 

Half tottering, he rises and passes his hands several 
times over his forehead; then, with uplifted arms, 
goes to the nearest wall, strikes it hard with the 
palms of his hands, and recedes a few steps, always 
unsteady, repeating the operation two or three 
times. At last, able to stand firm, he turns toward 
the company, and says, " Good-evening. " His 
movements are free ; his features, language, way of 
walking, all his actions, polite or rude, take the 
character of the individual supposed to possess him. 
Those present never address the doctor by his 
name, but that of the one said to control him, who, 
by his manners and language, is known to some among 
them. They answer his greeting with courtesy, and 
try to please him by all means in their power, offer- 



1^4 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

ing him rum or some good thing they have prepared 
for him; beg him to sing: if he does, join in with 
him, and respond to the toasts he deigns to drink to 
those present. Afterward, by invitation or volunta- 
rily, he attentively examines the patients, gently 
touching the affected parts, and asking questions con- 
cerning the malady. He fumigates the seat of the 
disease, makes passes over the individual with one of 
the small musical instruments, and lastly prescribes. 
When he has finished attending to patients he takes 
more fire-water and says good-by. Then goes to the 
wall as before, strikes it with his open palms, and 
seems greatly exhausted. 

After a few minutes' rest he again approaches the 
wall, as already described, and soon is said to be un- 
der control of some one else, who with very little 
difference repeats what the first did; one thus suc- 
ceeds another throughout the night. Some only 
minister to two or three patients, others to many ; the 
master always attending to the most serious cases. 
They sometimes approve the prescriptions of those 
w^ho have preceded them, but may prescribe other 
remedies ; then the master decides which shall be 
used. The medicaments ordered are herbs, barks, 
roots, and in a few cases purgatives from the drug- 
store, to be used exactly as directed. When bleed- 



E VO CA TION OF SPIRI TS. 145 

ing — in the arms or feet — is ordered, the doctor 
undertakes to bleed them at once, or at the next 
meeting, or in the home of the patient, using for the 
operation a piece of glass tied to a small stick. 

When at work the medicine men and women are 
naked above the waist. Some make their prepara- 
tions in complete darkness, requesting those present 
to light up the room as soon as they are influenced 
by the first spirit. Others keep the room in obscur- 
ity only during the first part of the night. In the 
dark, after the preparatory ceremonies, a very loud 
voice seems to proceed from, some empty utensil. 
It salutes those present by roaring out " Good-even- 
ing, " takes information about the patients, speaks 
of incidents connected with their illness, and enters 
into conversation Avith those who are present simply 
from curiosity, answering almost any question they 
ask, even concerning the future ; then, after the 
people sing with' the voice, it gives thanks, and is 
heard no more. Soon another manifests, and an- 
other, until midnight, when the doctor puts a stop 
to it, to continue with light the other part of the 
performance above described ; then the voices are 
no longer heard except through the mouth of the 
medicine man. 

The individuals who undertake to make the voices 
10 



I 



146 HERE AND THERE IN YUCATAN. 

audible are very few, and as the darkness is com- 
plete, one cannot know whence they proceed. It is, 
however, a fact that those who attend such meetings 
always distinguish the supposed spirits by some par- 
ticular way of speaking or some favorite expressions, 
no two voices being alike ; and they address those 
present by their right name before it is revealed. 

It is a remarkable fact that in Yucatan, also, the 
Indians hide themselves at night, to perform cere- 
monies similar to those that take place in Brazil. 
Instead of rum they use a drink called balche, which 
they say is the beverage of the gods. It is made by 
soaking the bark of a tree called balche in honey 
and water that is allowed to ferment. This same 
liquor is used in equatorial Africa, and when long 
kept becomes very intoxicating. 



I 



1^ 



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COLGATE & GO'S Gashmere Bouquet Toilet Soap and Per-^ 

Tume are the most perfect of all toilet articles. Tlie materials, of which the soap is made, H 
have the most soothing and beneficial ettVct upon the skin and complexion. The perfume for the 
handkerchief IS a rare combination of the odors of many sweet flowers grown expressly for Colgate ' 
iL Co. Demulcent Sliaving Soap contains ingredients for softening the beard and cooling tlie skin, 
never before successfully iutroduced into a shaving soap. A trial of these superior articles will 
convince you. 



